Community voices concerns over future  

of African-American studies program 

The fate of City of Franklin school, the future of the African-American Studies Department and the quality of district budget figures all came up for debate at a Board of Education meeting Wednesday night, as the budget-cutting process continued to roil the community. 

The board, which has already approved $3.8 million in cuts for next year, must chop about $6 million to balance the 2002-2003 budget. 

In January, Superintendent Michele Lawrence recommended permanently closing Franklin, a K-6 school modeled after a city, to save the financially-strapped district an estimated $326,000. But the superintendent has shifted her position in recent weeks, and Wednesday night, she presented two options for keeping the school open. Board members suggested they are split over which option to pursue. 

Under one scenario, the K-6 school would remain open next year as a first to fifth grade school, on a reduced budget, during a one-year refurbishing of the building. The school would receive minimal funds during this time. Lawrence said the school is under-enrolled and the district cannot afford to allocate a full budget to the small school.  

A second option would be to move students elsewhere during construction, and re-open the school in the fall of 2003. No matter which option the board chooses, the district will likely place another program or administrative offices alongside Franklin school in 2003 to make better use of the large building, which is currently underutilized. 

Board President Shirley Issel and Vice-President Joaquin Rivera said it is not realistic to keep the school open during construction on a shoestring budget. 

“I really think that option one is a bad one,” said Rivera. “Only being able to give that school some partial support is a disaster waiting to happen.” 

But board member Terry Doran suggested that shutting down for the year would be disruptive both to Franklin and to the surrounding schools, which would absorb the redistributed students.  

In an interview Thursday, board member John Selawsky made similar arguments. 

“Quite honestly, the information given to me last night makes me really uncomfortable about closing that school for a year,” said Selawsky, who maintained that he is still undecided. 

Board member Ted Schultz, told the Daily Planet Thursday that he is remaining neutral while the superintendent gathers more information. 

Selawsky said some parents at Berkeley Arts Magnet, an elementary school housed in a small facility, have their eye on the Franklin building, further complicating the picture. 

“It’s on the table,” said Selawsky. “I think it makes sense, quite honestly. But that’s down the road, at least two years away.” 

Selawsky said Franklin and Berkeley Arts Magnet may be able to co-exist in the same building. 

African-American Studies and the six-period day 

Last week, the board voted to move from a seven- to a six-period day at BHS beginning next fall as part of the $3.8 million package of budget cuts. 

The schedule shift will reduce the number of electives available to students, including, quite possibly, African-American Studies courses. 

A parade of parents, students and community activists, including several Black Muslims dressed in suits and bow ties, spoke up for African-American Studies Wednesday night. 

“You’ve got to teach the most important knowledge in the world – knowledge of self,” said Yusuf Bey, owner of Oakland-based Your Black Muslim Bakery, urging the board to keep the department at full tilt. 

Lawrence said there will be a reduction in electives, likely including art, music and African-American studies courses, among others. But she emphasized that, contrary to prevalent rumors, no programs will be eliminated. 

Doran said the board had achieved a “delicate balance” in trimming the high school schedule and keeping valuable programs intact. 

“We didn’t eliminate the African-American Studies Department,” Doran said. “We could have. We didn’t eliminate the arts and we could have.” 

But parents said the cuts in electives will have devastating effects on students. Denise Jones, mother of a BHS graduate, said the school’s music program helped keep her oldest son in school. 

“If he’d had a six-period day in his four years, he never would have graduated from Berkeley High School,” said Jones, who added that high school athletics, which also face cuts, were instrumental in keeping her son on track. 

The district has put out conflicting messages about the cost savings associated with a shift to the six-period day. In a budget-cutting proposal released in January, Lawrence estimated a $520,000 savings. But, in a meeting with the Berkeley High School PTA this week, the superintendent said the savings would be closer to $150,000. 

At Wednesday’s meeting, Lawrence said the $150,000 figure is probably too low. Derick Miller, president of the Berkeley PTA Council, and a vocal opponent of the switch to a six-period day, challenged the board for making a decision without a solid sense for the cost-savings. 

“That’s a pretty difficult decision if we can’t even figure out how much we’re saving doing it,” he said.  

Editor: 

“What are we doing? Do we have a policy in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?” 

These are questions people are beginning to ask the Bush administration as the body count continues to the multiply, daily, from the escalation of violence occurring in and around Israel and the Palestinian occupied territories. 

Over the last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell has passed through the gauntlet of media press, advocating restraint on both sides, but when pressed, the secretary repeats the same administration line - blaming Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for the suicide bombings, when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has limited his effectiveness by placing him under house arrest. Both the United States and Israel knows that Arafat's power does not extend to militant elements of Hamas and Hezbollah, their growing power in the region spurred by the frustration of Palestinians want to achieve an equal accord with Israel now, not later. Their frustration becomes magnified as all parties realized how close they actually came towards peace.  

During the Clinton administration, significant progress occurred because the U.S. decides to become a full third partner in the peace negotiation process. Israeli armies had left Gaza and West bank, suicide bombing were drastically reduced, and the talk between former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat was not about ‘building a wall,’ but rather how to manage a symbiotic economic trade policy between Israel and its fledgling Palestine neighbor. Flash-forward to the Bush administration, it is obvious that the current isolationist foreign policy towards the Middle East (besides the war on terror) isn’t working. 

Already, the cable news outlets have had a field day with the Gallop poll results released last week, showing that most respondents from the Muslim world had unfavorable opinions toward the U.S. The continuing debacle of the President's State of the Union phrase “axis of evil” and the U.S. Special Forces stalemate around Gardez, Afghanistan, does not help to discount this view. Increasingly even mainstream media outlets (with the exception of Fox News) is asking for a more detailed road map in between resolve issues within the war on terror. With the rate of violence spiraling out of control, shots of the Afghan warfront are competing with video of Israeli soldiers invading the Palestinian refugee camps. (Bad news for Sharon and Colin Powell.) 

Even with the peace proposals by Saudi Prince Crown Prince Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, missiles still bombard Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's compound. The latest being Wednesday when Arafat was receiving European Union Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos in an attempt to stimulate some positive dialogue against the rising tensions. Apparently former general Ariel Sharon would rather see the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in flames (appeasing Israeli conservatives), than go to the negotiating table and give land for peace.  

The irony of the situation is that Yasser Arafat is more popular among Palestinians and Europeans, than Ariel Sharon, whose sole ally in his ‘get tough’ stance is none other than the United States. However, it remains to be seen if the Secretary of State is willing to see more innocent Palestinian and Israeli civilians die in attacks and reprisals, without commenting that all-out war would be disastrous. The United States cannot afford to lose its sphere of positive influence letting the burgeoning conflict spin out of control. 

Regrettably, the reason why the Bush administration will step in this Mideast conflict will have less to do mending fences, rather it will be another example of the conservative agenda trying to reinstate the image of American imperialism at home and abroad. An imperialism that, while able to preserve a ‘little vs. heavy’ peace, paradoxically caused many of the issues the region currently deals with (autocratic governments, religious extremist violence). 

The only answer to the unending volley of violence is for Secretary of State Colin Powell to again start the United States down a path of mediation between Israel and Palestine, treating Palestine President Yasser Arafat with the same degree of respect as the Israeli Prime Minister. Though it may ruffle the features conservatives and military hawks that view Arafat as a de-facto terrorist, the Palestinian people support him and he is their elected leader (Would Ariel Sharon and President Bush prefer militant Hamas?). To continue to disrespect and blame Arafat for the continued intifada, disrespects the Palestinian people, whose rights of self-determination and human decency continue to be eroded. Even Yasser Arafat’s political power in the region is limited, as Sharon and Powell know too well, as a ‘boxed-in’ Arafat makes the lure of Hamas and Hezbollah even stronger. This option leaves many Palestinians with no choice but to fight. Israeli military, while attempting to crush the Palestinian insurrection, clumsily are making even innocent civilians into targets, as decrepit refugee camps turn into mini-war zones. With this scenario, only one thing is certain: further Israeli violence only helps Hamas, bringing war everlasting. 

Tommy Ates 

Texas 

Friday, March 8

International Women’s Day 

1 - 2:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Music, history, and speakers.  

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Celebrating International Women’s Day 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Theatre  

2640 College Ave. 

International Women’s Day celebration with Suheir Hammad, poet and author of “First Writing Since” and “Born Palestinian, Born Black.” This event is presented by the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association and Women of Color Resource Center. All are welcome to both the reception at 6 p.m. and the 

program at 7 p.m. $10 - $30, sliding scale. 845-8542, www.coloredgirls.org. 

Berkeley Critical Mass Ninth Birthday Ride 

5:30 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART 

Bike through the streets with glee to celebrate the ninth birthday of the monthly Berkeley Critical Mass ride. http://www.bclu.org/couch/. 

Men Considering Serving in the  

Roman Catholic church as a  

priest or brother 

9 p.m. 

Precious Blood Mission House  

2800 Milvia 

An evening of dialogue and discernment for men who are considering serving in the Roman Catholic church as a priest or brother. RSVP to Rev. Gary M. Luiz, 848-1053. 

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Mary Breunig, president, Landmark Heritage Foundation; “The Julian Morgan Building, the Berkeley City Club, and the Landmark Heritage Foundation.” $1. 848-3533. 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

Dancing with Lucretia, plus Haiti short story. Free. 232-1351. 

SafeTeens: Powerful Alternatives to Violence 

6:30 p.m. 

Berkeley YWCA 

2600 Bancroft Way 

Anita Roberts, founder of SafeTeen programs, is the featured guest. This event is designed specifically for preteens, teens, their parents and/or mentors, educators, and students. 848-6370. 

Saturday, March 9

Burma Human Rights Day 

6 - 10 p.m. 

Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship Hall 

1924 Cedar 

Benefit for women’s groups on the Thailand/Burma border. Burmese cuisine 6 - 7 p.m.; Min Zin, featured speaker, 7 - 8 p.m.; “Sacrifice,” feature film, 8 - 9 p.m.; $10-$20 sliding scale. 841-4824, www.badasf.org. 

Restore Hetch Hetchy 

5 p.m. 

MountainLight Gallery 

1466 66th St., Emeryville 

A short presentation describing the effort to obtain a “win-win” outcome for Yosemite National Park’s Hetch Hetchy Valley and the Bay Area’s water and power users. 209-372-8660, www.mountainlight.com/. 

Train for the Eco-Challenge 

2 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Liz Caldwell and Barry Siff, veteran members of Team REI-Salomon, with a slide presentation on their recent Eco-Challenge events in New Zealand and Borneo. They will discuss how to train for a competition, select team members and prevent injury. 527-4140. 

Sunday, March 10

Oakland Civic Orchestra’s 

Children’s Concert 

3 p.m. 

Oakland Veteran’s Memorial Building 

200 Grand Ave., Oakland 

A concert for children of all ages. There will be a raffle and young members from the audience will have a chance to conduct the orchestra. Free. 251-8362. 

Storytelling Women 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Live Oak Center, Social Hall 

1301 Shattuck Ave. 

Women tellers telling about women who inspire their lives. Four storytellers and a musician. Part of the annual women’s and girls’ tea party and storytelling ceremony held in Codornices Park. $30 suggested. 841-6612. 

The Labor Movement, Democracy and the Political Vacuum 

noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

411 28th St., Oakland 

Presentation by Steve Zeltzer. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Tibetan Art: Entering  

the Realm of the Sacred 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Sylvia Gretchen, Dean of Nyingma Studies, will uses examples of Tibetan art to explore the meaning of “sacred.” 843-6812. 

Monday, March 11

The Science Behind Global Warming, and How You Can Reduce Your Impact 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

University Ave. and Bonar St. 

Susan Ode, Berkeley Energy Commission, will provide an update on the science and implications of global warming for the world, plus a practical list of actions you can incorporate in your life to protect the global climate and improve the quality of your life. 981-5435, energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Odyssey of Conflict and Odyssey of Mastery – Polanyi, Pirsig, Zen, and the Art of Knowing 

3:30 - 5 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion, Mudd 206 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Lecture and discussion presented by Allen Dyer, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at East Tennessee State University, also former chair of the ethics committee of the American Psychiatric Association. Free and open to the public. 849-8285. 

Learning from The History of Government 

noon 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Positive Political Theory Seminar with Roger Myerson, University of Chicago. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/. 

Conscientious Objection to War 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Friends’ Meetinghouse 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends will view the PBS documentary, The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It, and discuss it.  

Meet the Artists of the  

ARTS Ed Resource Guide 

6 - 8 p.m. 

James Irvine Foundation Conference Center 

353 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 

Artists and arts organizations will deliver brief presentation about their program offerings and address questions posed by the audience. Free and open to the public. 208-0842, www.artsedeastbay.org. 

Tuesday, March 12

An Evening with Numfundo Walaza: The Burden of Forgiveness 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

An evening with Numfundo Walaza, director of the Trauma Center for Survivors of Violence and Torture in Capetown, South Africa. Walaza will talk about "The Burden of Forgiveness: Reflections from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of South Africa." $15. 204-0720, mkmorrison@cdsp.edu. 

Wednesday, March 13

Trees Forum 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

Amahra Hicks of USFS, and Jeff Romm of UCB discuss “Just Forests Initiative: Faith-based Activism for Public Land.” Free and open to the public. www.gtu.edu/StudServ/TREES. 

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Lawrence Saez, professor of East Asia Studies, UC Berkeley; “South Asia: Focus on India.” $5. 848-3533. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish  

Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St. 

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

Thursday, March 14

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers 

Annual Flytying Festival 

7:30 p.m. 

Kensington Community Center 

59 Arlington Ave., Kensington 

Flytying demonstrations and tutoring for beginning through advanced. 524-0428. 

Hiking the Appalachian Trail 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Lisa Garrett and Francis Tapon will share slides and highlights of their 111-day journey through 13 East Coast states covering 2,167 miles. 527-4140, www.sonictrek.com.  

Friday, March 15

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Keith A. Russell, president, American Baptist Seminary of the West; “A look at Moral Issues.” $1. 848-3533. 

– Compiled by Guy Poole 

When Mixmaster Mike of Beastie Boys fame describes in the new documentary film “Scratch” the first time he heard a DJ scratch a record – on Malcom’s McLaren’s 1983 single “Buffalo Gals” – he said he didn’t know what he was hearing. “All that scratching was making me itch. Zigga zigga. Where’s that sound coming from?” 

The answer quickly arrived on TV when a performance of Herbie Hanckock’s breakdancing classic “Rockit” broadcast a sonic revelation. Mike could see that Mixmaster DXT was rubbing a record back and forth under a needle, sending him and legion of other budding young hip hop DJs on the path to turntablism. 

Fifteen years after “Rockit,” filmmaker Doug Pray was approached, on the strength of his 1996 documentary about the Seattle grunge scene “Hype,” to direct a documentary about scratching, and Pray admits he didn’t know anything about it at the time. “I know it sounds corny, but the journey of discovery is exactly what keeps you going,” said Pray from his Los Angles home. “There’s something to be said for being an outsider in a culture, because you do go in with an open mind.  

I’m able to go in and ask really simple, kind of stupid questions. And sometimes the answers are the most interesting things. The answers always end up in the movie.” 

Easy to do, hard to do well, scratching is the cosmic noise for the soundtrack of the hip hop world. It’s the flash behind the gold-ringed glimmer of Grandmaster Flash and the bounce in Run DMC’s beats. Deeply grooved in the roots of funk, the DJ searches for his scratches in the breaks of his record collection. 

One of the really simple questions Pray asked about scratching is “What is a break?” says Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa in the film, “... the break beat is the part you look for in a record that lets your God-self just get wild.” 

“Scratch” can’t resist getting a little wild itself with sampling and slipping of its own while it presents a history, a definition, and a portrait of scratching and its practitioners. Pray found that to adequately tell the story of scratching he would have to include all the hip hop arts: breakdancing, graffiti, the MC and the D. It’s an urban arts movement that has been saddled by its association with rap as a street fad but has grown to legitimately stake a claim in music, language, painting and fashion. 

The DJs in the film take stabs at explaining their frenetic techniques, but the art of scratching cannot be adequately explained apart from the other hip-hop arts; it’s a style working in symbiosis with rhyming and dancing and the heat of a house party. Filmmaker Pray said he had trouble making the 90-minute film informative to people who don’t know much about the hip hop scene while appealing to the people who are already steeped in it. “Some things are left out,” he said. “I can’t cover everything. I’m not Ken Burns.” 

"Scratch" digs into the old-school founders of scratching with DXT and Grandmaster Flash (seen in a clip from the legendary 1982 feature film "Wild Style" scratching in his kitchen), asks scratching poster boy DJ Qbert how he talks through his turntables, and follows downbeat DJ Shadow digging the vinyl treasure trove in the low-ceiling basement of his favorite record store in a hush-hush Sacramento location. 

"The whole old school section is 15 minutes long. At one point it was 45 minutes long," said Pray about trying to present the whole story in 90 minutes. "There’s always a point in the editing when it suddenly becomes more about the movie and less about who are you trying to please, and the movie takes on a logic of its own." 

By letting the story come out of the material, Pray’s film shows scratching as trying to overcome its own obscurity. DJs spinning records at parties gave MCs and rappers the platform for rhyming over syncopated beats, who then eventually overshadowing the DJ with their front-man stage personalities. Record companies began to do away with DJs altogether, paying just an MC with a drum machine to make records. 

Scratching, the film suggests, existed as a closeted skill in the fingertips of bedroom prodigies at garage parties, working under the noise complaints of their parents and, like celestial jazzman Sun Ra, by communing with alien forces to create a world of cosmic righteousness through grooves and beats. 

A breakthrough release was "Return of the DJ," a 1996 compilation record featuring just scratching by masters of the craft, stepping them up to front stage. Now, sales of turntables as musical instruments are rivaling those of guitars as kids spend endless hours practicing for Scratchcon, an annual scratching competition that trophies the winning scratcher of the world.  

Doug Pray found DJs who were eager to talk about their influences and techniques in spite of the competitive spirit of Scratchcon.  

"It seems like there’s a new energy, and honoring old hip hop," said Pray. "Hip hop has become mainstream corporate rap, and become a narrow closed-minded thing. Because of that these DJs are asking ‘why aren’t people having fun at hip-hop parties anymore? Why aren’t people dancing? Let’s take this back to what it used to be.’" 

924 Gilman Mar. 8: Dead and Gone, Drunk Horse, The Cost, Scurvy Dogs; Mar. 9: Not Flipper, The Sick, Lo-FI Niessans, Stalker Potential, Deficient; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926. 

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series Mar. 17: 8 p.m., Vorticella; the laptop duo of Kristen Miltner and Kendra Juul; $0 to $20, TUVA Space, 3192 Adeline. 649-8744, http://sfsound.org/acme.html. 

The Albatross Mar. 9: Larry Stefl Jazz Quartet, 9:30 p.m.; Mar. 12: Mad & Eddie Duran; Mar. 14: Keni “El Lebrijano”; Mar. 17: Bobby Nickels, Kyle Thyer, Cherlie, 8:30 p.m.; Mar. 18: Paul Schneider; Mar. 19: Carla Kaufman & Larry Scala; Mar. 20: Whiskey Brothers; Mar. 21: Keni “El Lebrijano”; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@mindspring.com. 

Anna’s Bistro Mar. 8: Buddy Conner; 10 p.m., Bluesman Hideo Date; Mar. 9: Vicki Burns and Felice York; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 10: Choro Time; Mar. 11: Renegade Sidemen; Mar. 12: Singers’ open mic w/ Trio; Mar. 13: Jimmy Ryan Jazz Quartet; Mar. 14: Rev. Rabia; Mar. 15: Sallie/Dave/Doug Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Mar. 16: Bob Crawford Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 17: Aleph Null; Music starts at 8 p.m. unless noted, 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center Mar. 1: 9:30 p.m., Caribbean All Stars, $11; Mar. 2: 9:30 p.m., West African Highlife Band, $11; Mar. 3: 7:30 p.m., Flamenco open stage, $8; Mar. 4: 6:30 p.m., Vista College Class; Mar. 5: 9 p.m., Brass Menagerie; Mar. 6: 8 p.m., Tom Rigney and Flambeau, $8; Mar. 7: 10 p.m., Grateful Dead DJ Nite, $5; Mar. 8: 9:30 p.m., Henri-Pierre Koubaka and Kasumai Bare, $10; Mar. 9: 7:30 p.m., “In Song and Struggle,” 3rd annual music, dance and spoken word celebration of International Women’s Day and 12 years of Berkeley Copwatch, $10-$20, www.berkeleycopwatch.org; Mar. 10: 2 - 6 p.m., California Friends of Louisiana French Music, $8; Mar. 10: 7:30 p.m., Be Sharps - The 22-voice student choir from El Cerrito’s Windrush Middle School, $5; Mar. 17: 7 p.m., Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and Combos; 1317 San Pablo Ave., 548-0425. 

Blake’s Mar. 1: Roux, Ordinary K, $5; Mar. 2: Pseudopod, $5; Mar. 3: Cosmic Mercy, Wildsang, $3; Mar. 4: The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; Mar. 5: Wonderland Ave, Oh My God, $3; Mar. 6: Sisterz of The Underground, $5, Hebro, free; Mar. 7: Ascension, $5; Mar. 8: Five Point Plan, Subterraneanz, $5; Mar. 9: Motherbug, $5; Mar. 10: Earl Zero & the 7th Street Band, DJ Baggo, $3; Mar. 11 The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; Mar. 12: Colonel Knowledge, Mega Babes, $3; Mar. 13: Karate High School, Auto Punch, Simplistic, $5; Mar. 14: Ascension, $5; Mar. 15: King Harvest, First Circle, $5; Mar. 16: Omaya, $7; Mar. 17: The Lost Coast Band, The Real, $3; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cafe Eclectica Feb. 23: 8 p.m., Hip Hop show: Little Larry, with guest MCs and DJs. A teen cafe "for youth, by youth". All ages, $3 w/HS I.D., $5 w/o; 1309 Solano Ave., Albany, 527-2344. 

Cal Performances Mar. 10: 3 p.m., The Petersen Quartet perform the works of Beethoven, Shostakovich and Ravel. $34; Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Gyuto Monks perform multiphonic chanting in accordance with the spiritual practices of Tantric Tibetan Buddhism. $24 - $36; Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Andras Schiff, classical pianist. $28 - $48; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 642-9988 

Cato’s Ale House Mar. 3: Mo’ Fone; Mar. 6: Christopher Gamper Trio featuring Michael Emenau; Mar. 10: Blue Eyed Devils; Mar. 13: Irish Session; Mar. 20: Saul Kaye Quartet; Mar. 24: Lost Coast Jazz Trio; Mar. 27: Vince Wallace Trio; Mar. 31: Phillip Greenlief Trio; 3891 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, 655-3349 

Club Jjang-ga Feb. 23: Cheapskate, Eddie Haskels, Resiteleros, Dead Last; 261-1108, savageproductions1@yahoo.com. 

Downtown Mar. 1: Hal Stein; Mar. 2: Mel Martin; Mar. 3: Fredreick Nighthawk; Mar. 5: Aaron Greenblatt; Mar. 6: Michael Bluestein; Mar. 8: Post Junk Trio; Mar. 9: Mad and Eddie Duran; Mar. 10: Duncan James, Ned Boynton Jazz Guitar Duet; Mar. 12: Aaron Greenblatt; Mar. 13: Dave Mathews; 2102 Shattuck Ave., 649-3810 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Mar. 8 & 9: House Jacks, $17.50; Mar. 10: Todd Phillips, David Grier & Matt Flinner, $16.50; Mar. 11: Ledward Ka’apana, $17.50; Mar. 13: Ryan Shupe & the Rubber Band, $16.50; Mar. 14: Carol Denney, $16.50; Mar. 15: David Maloney performs Irish folk opera “The Great Blight”, $17.50; Mar. 16: The Black Brothers, $18.50; Mar. 17: Tom Russell, $16.50; 1111 Addison St., 548-1761, folk@freightandsalvage.org 

Jupiter Feb. 23: Brenden Millstein Quartet; Feb. 27: J Steinkoler Duo; Feb. 28: Spectraphonic; All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m., unless noted. 2181 Shattuck Ave., 843-7625, www.jupiterbeer.com. 

La Peña Cultural Center Mar. 1: 9 p.m., 2nd Annual Women in Salsa Celebration, $10; Mar. 2: 8 p.m., Aywah! Ethnic Dance Co., $16; Mar. 3: 3:30 p.m. -6 p.m., Domingo de Rumba in the Café; Mar. 6: 7:30 p.m., Students of La Peña's classes perform Josh Jones' Latin Jazz and Hip Hop/Funk Ensemble perform with guest artists from Joyce Young's Poetry, Resistance and Cultural Arts Workshops, and students from Merritt College high school. $8; 3105 Shattuck Ave., 849-2568, www.lapena.org. 

The Starry Plough Mar. 1: 9:30 p.m., Darling Clementines, Swingin' Doors, $6; Mar. 2: 9:30 p.m., Jon Dee Graham, Naked Barbies, $8; Mar. 3: 8 p.m., The Starry Irish Music Session led by Shay Black; Mar. 4: 7 p.m., Dance Class and Ceili (traditional Irish music session), free; Mar. 5: 7:30 p.m., Open Mic, free; Mar. 6: 8:30 p.m., Poetry Slam $7; Mar. 7: 9:30 p.m., Bleachmobile, Grain USA, Knieval, $4; Mar. 8: 9:30 p.m., 5 Rue Christine Label Showcase, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Hella, Slim Moon Solo, $5; Mar. 9: 9:30 p.m., Gun and Doll Show, Visitor Jim, Anton Barbeau, $5; Mar. 10: 8 p.m., The Starry Irish Music Session led by Shay Black; Mar. 11: Dance Class and Ceili (traditional Irish music session), free; Mar. 12: 7:30 p.m., Open Mic, free; Mar. 13: 8:30 p.m., Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik, $7; Mar. 14: 9:30 p.m., Giant Value, Warm Fields, $4; Mar. 15: 9:30 p.m., Moore Brothers, $6; Mar. 16: 9:30 p.m., St. Patrick's Celtic Meltdown, Blue on Green, Green Man Gruvin, $5; Mar. 17: 6 p.m., St. Patty's Day Celebration, Chameleon, Irish dancers & bagpiper, $10; 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082. 

Tuva Space Mar. 21: 8 p.m., Blues Translation; Mar. 22: 8 p.m., Electro-Acoustic Quartet; Mar. 23: 8 p.m. Solo Guitar Performance, 9:30 p.m. Country, Folk, and Blues Standards. $8 All shows $8. 312 Adeline St. 649-8744, acme@sfsound.org 

“Free Men! Free Women!” Feb. 23: 8 p.m., Wing It performs a new a combination of dance, song and story. $12. First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, 814-9584 

“John Glennon and Erika March” Feb. 24: 5 p.m., A program of French music including the works of Francois Couperin, Chambonnieres, and Muffat. $15 - $18. MusicSources, 1000 The Alameda, 528-1685 

“Soukous Xplosion Tour 2002” Mar. 1: 9 p.m. Madilu Systems, Nyboma, Diblo Dibala & Matchatcha and special guest Daly Kimoko will make the sounds of Africa come alive. $25, $30 at door. California Ballroom, 1736 Franklin St., Oakland, 415-421-8497 

“Cosi Fan Tutte” Through Mar. 3: The Berkeley Opera will perform Mozart’s classic opera. $10 - $30. Call for specific dates and times. Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. 841-103, www.berkeleyopera.com 

“In Praise of Music: Berkeley Choral Festival” Mar. 4: 8 p.m., Several local choral groups will join the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in a benefit for the Musicians’ Pension Fund. $25 - $49, $12 students. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 841-2800 

“Chamber Music” Mar. 9: 3 p.m., Berkeley High School musicians perform their second annual chamber music concert, featuring the works of Gershwin, Ravel, McMichael, Maniet and Couperin. Free. Berkeley Public Library North Branch, 1170 The Alameda, 981-6250 

“Splendors of Versailles and Madrid” Mar. 9: 8 p.m., Mar. 10: 7:30 p.m., Jordi Savall conducts the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra as they perform works from the Royal Court composers of Spain and France. $34 - $50. First Congregational Church, Dana & Durant, 415-392-4400 

“Shashmaqam Bukharan Jewish Ensemble” Mar. 10: 8 p.m., An evening of traditional music and from Bukhara, Uzbekistan. $24. Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley campus, 866-9559 

“The Glory of Past Empires - Music of Great Civilizations in Europe and Western Asia” Mar. 10: 8 p.m., Tim Rayborn and John Waller. $10, $8 students. Hausmusik, 1185 Solano Ave., PMB #146, Albany, 486-2803 

“Empyrean Ensemble” Mar. 10: 2 p.m., The classical group performs two world premiers for this family matinee. $10 adults, $5 children. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave., 845-8542 x301, www.juliamorgan.org 

UC Men's Octet Annual Spring Show Mar. 14 and 15: 8 p.m., all-male a cappella group; $7 students, $12 general, UC Berkeley, Wheeler Auditorium, 301-2367 octoevents@hotmail.com. 

“Harmonica Ace and Band” Mar. 15: 8 p.m., 10 p.m., Carlos Zialcita and his band team up with guest vocalist Ella Pennewell for a blues concert. $12. Dotha’s Juke Joint, 126 Broadway, Oakland, 663-7668 

“Expressionality” Mar. 13 through Mar. 16: Wed. 10:15 a.m., Thurs. 10:30 a.m., 7 p.m., Sat. to be announced. An opera created and produced by 4th and 5th graders. Wed. and Thurs. shows at Malcolm X Arts & Academics School, 1731 Prince St. Sat. show at Oakland Museum of Art. 644-6313 

“The Art of Disability” Mar. 16: 7 p.m., A showcase of performing artists with disabilities. $10 -$50 sliding scale. Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St., Oakland, hesternet@jps.net 

“Tribute to Oakland’s Gospel Greats” Mar. 16: 7:30 p.m., The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and Youth Choir will present a free tribute concert. First Congregational Church of Oakland, 27th & Harrison St., Oakland, 839-4361  

“The Song of Songs” Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Composer Jorge Linderman creates a musical setting for Chana Bloch and Ariel Bloch’s translation of “The Song of Songs”. $32. Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Celebration for the Trees Mar. 17: 7 - 10 p.m., Benefit for the Ancient Trees Coalition Education Effort with Making Waves, Green, Marca Cassity, Folk This!, and Hali Hammer. BFUU Fellowship Hall 1606 Bonita. 

“Chamber Music Series” Mar. 17: 4 p.m., Joan Jeanrenaud, founding cellist of Kronos Quartet, gives a solo performance of both acoustic and electronic pieces. $10, free children under 18. The Crowden School, 1475 Rose St., 559-6910 x110, jamie@thecrowdenschool.org 

“Jazz Concert” Mar. 24: 2 p.m., Terry Gibbs and the Mike Vax Orchestra. $10 - $18. Longfellow School for the Arts, 1500 Derby St. 420-4560, www.bigbandjazz.net 

“Recital” Mar. 24: 3 p.m., Cal Performances presents pianist, Richard Goode, and vocalist, Randall Scarlata. $48. Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Jewish Music Festival” Mar. 9 through Mar 24: Several performers will perform Jewish music and dance from across the world. Call Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center for Acts, times and dates. 925-866-9559, www.brjcc.org 

Dance 

“Here..Now” Through Feb. 24: Tues. - Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m., 8 p.m., Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs three distinct programs featuring the West Coast premiere of “Here...Now”. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-0212 

“Kusum Africa” Mar. 1 & 2: 8 p.m., Sixty artists and four dance companies representing the traditions of the Congo, Republic of Guinea, and Ghana adapt sub-Saharan dance-drumming to tell the story of the occupation of Accra, Ghana to protest British colonialism. $18 - $30. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

"The Healing Has Time" Mar. 9: 8 p.m., Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, a tribute in dance benefiting the Mother of Peace Orphanage Living with AIDS in Zimbabwe. $15-$30. Kaiser Convention Center - Calvin Simmons Theater, 10th St., Oakland, 278-2681, diamanoc@aol.com. 

“Risk of Falling” Mar. 9: 8 p.m., Mar. 10: 4:30 p.m., Julie Drucker has assembled troupe of dancers ages 24 to 83 to perform an intergenerational dance project that weds improvisational movement and personal storytelling to explore issues of trust, fear, aging and community. $12 - $15, $10 seniors. Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito, 286-7922 

“Our Neighbors Dance Their Dances: A Celebration of World Dances” Mar. 10: 3 p.m., The African Queens, Patricia Bulitt, Betty Ladzekpo and Mimi Prather & Rotrease Yates perform their respective native dances. $5, children free. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave. 981-5150 

“Compania Espanola De Antonio Marquez” Mar. 13 & 14: 8 p.m., Artistic Director Antonio Marquez showcases his dazzling and dynamic program of flamenco. $24 - $36. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

Theater 

“Night, Mother” Feb. 23: 8 p.m., A drama exploring one young woman’s decision to take control of her life with one furious and heartbreaking act. Directed by Bahati Bonner. $12, $8 seniors. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 496-1269 x1950, nightmother@onebox.com 

“The Pirandello Project” Through Feb. 23: Check venue for specific dates, times and prices. An original presentation of three short works by the Nobel Prize-winning playwright, Luigi Pirandello. Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., 841-4082, www.pirandelloproject.org 

“Culture Clash in AmeriCCA” Through Mar. 3: Check theater for specific dates and times. The comic trio Culture Clash present their latest collection of political, ethnological and socialogical humor written for and about Berkeley. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Rhinoceros” Through Mar. 10: Check theater for specific dates and times. An absurdist tragic-comedy about a small provincial town whose citizens slowly but surely transform into large cumbersome rhinoceroses. Directed by Barbara Damashek. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St. 647-2976 www.berkeleyrep.org. 

“Divine Comedy: The Dante Project” Mar. 1 through Mar. 10: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. A motorcycle and sidecar speeding over the Marsh of Styx, a flying bathtub touring the solar system, and a traveler passing through a wall of fire are some of the more spectacular moments in this comic twist on Dante’s poem. $6 - $12. Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9925, genturc@uclink.berkeley.edu 

“Women’s Voices, Then and Now” Mar. 15 through Mar. 24: Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., Voices from a 1915 graveyard blend with voices from 1982 to present a vivid depiction of the lives of American women. $10. Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington, 525-0302 

“Curtain Up” Mar. 22 through Mar. 24: 8 p.m., Musical theater veteran Martin Charnin and Broadway conductor/comoser Keith Levenson join forces to create a semi-staged version of Gershwin and Kaufman’s 1927 musical comedy “Strike Up the Band”. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

“The Golden State” Feb. 23 through Mar. 24: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., An aging Brian Wilson meets the ruling family of the sea, and a blend of comic book escapade and tragedy follows in the wake. $20, Sunday is pay what you can. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave., 883-0305 

“Impact Briefs 5: The East Bay Hit” Mar. 1 through Mar. 30: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., A collection of seven plays all about the ups and downs of in the Bay Area. $12, $7 students. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid, 464-4468, tickets@impattheatre.com. 

“The Merchant of Venice” Mar. 9 through Mar. 31: Wed. - Thurs. 7 p.m., Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m., Women in Time Productions presents Shakespeare’s famous romantic comedy replete with masks and revelry, balcony scenes, and midnight escapes. $25, half-price on Wed. The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Knock Knock” Mar. 8 through Apr. 14: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m., A comedic farce about two eccentric retirees whose comfortable philosophical arguments are interrupted by a series of strange visitors. $26 - $35. Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland, 239-2252, www.acteva.com/go/havefun. 

“A Fairy’s Tail” Mar. 16 through Apr. 20: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. The Shotgun Players present Adam Bock’s story of a girl and her odyssey of revenge and personal transformation after a giant smashes her house with her family inside. Directed by Patrick Dooley. $10 - $25. The Allston Street Theatre, 2116 Allston Way, 704-8210, www.shotgunplayers.org 

Film 

Pacific Film Archive Mar. 11: A Star is Born, 3 p.m.; Flesh, 7 p.m.; Mar. 12: An eye Unruled: An Evening with Stan Brakhage, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 13: The Bicycle Thief, 3 p.m.; Daughter from Danang, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 14: The Student I, 7 p.m.; 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412 

“Asian American Film Fest” Mar. 8: 7 p.m., Obachan’s Garden; 9:30 p.m., Conjugation; Mar. 9: 7 p.m., Daughters of the Cloth; 9:20 p.m. E-Dreams; Mar. 10: 3 p.m., Chan is Missing; 5:30 p.m., Japanese Devils; Mar. 13: Daughter From Danang; Pacific Film Archive, 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412. 

Contra Costa Jewish Film Festival Through March 7th. On wednesday Febraury 27th at 7:30p.m. 2736 Bancrfot Avenue - Love, Israeli Style will be playing. On Thursday, March 7th at 7:30 p.m. 2451 Shattuck Avenue - The Search for Peace will be playingg ($5).  

Exhibits  

“Adventures in La Land” Through Feb. 23: Installations by Suzanne Husky and Paintings by Amy Morrell. Tues. - Sat., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; 4920 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, 428-2349. 

“Transformations: Through the Eye of a Needle” Through Feb. 23: Two-person exhibition by Rebecca Bui and Linda Lemon including procelain and fabric dolls and mixed media works on handmade paper. Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, www.artolio.com 

“Ton of Joy” Through Mar. 1: Group show of twelve painters and sculptors: Simone Anders, Susan Brady, Erin Fitzgerald, Karen Frey, Kei Hanafusa, Nancy Legge, Burke Rainey, Robin Sebourn, Kristen Throop, Clay Vajgrt, Whitney Vosburgh, Ann West; Mon. - Sat., 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Hollis Street Project, 5900 Hollis St., Emeryville. 

“Celebrating the African Diaspora” Through Mar. 1: A Black History Month Exhibit celebrating the contributions of Africans in America and throughout the Diaspora. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.; University of Creation Sprituality, 2141 Broadway, Oakland, 835-4827 x31 

“Trace of a Human” Feb. 28 through Mar. 30: Jim Freeman and Krystyna Mleczko exhibit their latest works including mixed media sculpture installation and acrylic on canvas paintings. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Ansel Adams in the University of California Collections” Through Mar. 10: A selection of photographs and memorabilia presenting a different perspective on Adam’s career as one of the leading figures in American photography; Through Mar. 24: “Migrations: Photographs by Sebastiao Salgado,” over 300 black-and-white photographs of immigrants and refugees taken by the Brazilian photographer. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4- $6. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

“A Retrospective Show” Through Mar. 13: The Women’s Cancer Resource Center “The Art of Living Black,” an Open Studios event for local African American artists. The Gallery features a retrospective show of the work of the late Jan Hart-Schuyers. Mon. - Thurs. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., Sat. 12 - 4 p.m., Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 3023 Shattuck Ave., 548-9286 x307, www.wcrc.org. 

The Richmond Art Center Through Mar. 16: “The Art of Living Black 2002: The sixth Annual Bay Area Black Artists Exhibition and Art Tour,” group exhibition of 81 artists; “Introspección Dual: Recent Painting by Verónica B. Rojas and Santiago Gervas”; “Transmutations: Recent work by Tim Jag”; “The NIAD` Family,” Artwork from the National Institute of Art and Disabilities; “Still Here,” collaborative art project about AIDS in the 21st century; “Girls in the Hall,” artwork by girls incarcerated in the San Francisco juvenile justice system; Tues. - Fri., 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; The Art of Living Black Art Tour Weekend: Mar. 2 and 3, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; 2540 Barrett Ave., 620-6772, www.therichmondartcenter.org. 

“Stas Orlovski” Feb. 16 through Mar. 23: New work by Stas Orlovski featuring a series of large paintings and drawings examining the relationships between body and landscape and eastern and western aesthetics. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St., 527-1214 

“Average Female (Perfect)” Through Mar. 24: Manhattan-based artist Sowon Kwon projects footage of the first ever perfect-scoring gymnasts: Romanian, Nadia Comanece and Russian, Nelli Kim at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Kwon superimposes over the gymnasts a hand-drawn outline of the “average” female body to direct the audience’s attention to the gymnasts’ movements throughout their performances. Wed. - Sun 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4 - $6. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Works of Alexander Nepote” Through Mar. 29: Nepote was a 20th century artist whose medium is a process of layered painting of torn pieces of watercolor paper, fused together in images that speak of the spirit that underlies and is embodied in the landscape he views. Check museum for times. Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., 849-8272 

“Trace of a Human” Through Mar. 30: An exhibit of mixed media sculpture by Jim Freeman, and acrylic paintings on canvas by Krystyna Mleczko. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Journey of Self-discovery” Through Mar. 30: Community Works artist Adriana Diaz and Willard Junior High students joined together to explore gender stereotypes, advertising, and other influential elements in society in a project that culminated in two life-size portraits that explore self-identity. Free. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 845-3332. 

“West Oakland Today” Through Mar. 30: Sergio De La Torre presents “thehousingproject”, an open house/video installation that explores desire surrounding one’s sense of home and place. Marcel Diallo presents “Scrapyard Ghosts”, an installation that presents a glimpse into the process of one man’s conversation with the living past through objects of iron, wood, rock dirt and other debris unearthed at an old scrapyard site in West Oakland’s Lower Bottom neighborhood. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland  

"Earthly Pleasures" assemblage and photographs by Susan Danis, Through March 30: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Mon. - Sat.; Sticks, 1579 B, Solano Ave., 526-6603.  

“Domestic Bliss” Through Apr. 4: Collection of abstract paintings and mixed medium by Amy St. George. Albany Community Center Foyer Gallery, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany, 524-9283. 

“Portraits of the Afghan People: 1984 - 1992” Through Apr. 6: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Bay Area photographer Patricia Monaco. Free. Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St., 644-1400 

“The Zoom of the Souls” Mar. 23 through Apr. 13: An exhibit of oil paintings by Mark P. Fisher. Sat. 1 p.m. - 6 p.m. Bay Area Music Foundation, 462 Elwood Ave. #9, Oakland, 836-5223 

“Sibila Savage & Sylvia Sussman” Through Apr. 13: Photographer, Sibila Savage presents photographs documenting the lives of her immigrant grandparents, and Painter, Sylvia Sussman displays her abstract landscapes on unstretched canvas. Free. Wed. - Sun. 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 64-6893, www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Trillium Press: Past, Present and Future” Feb. 15 through April 13: Works created at Trillium Press by 28 artists. Tues. - Fri. noon - 5:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., 549-2977, www.kala.org.  

“Art is Education” Mar. 18 through Apr. 19th: A group exhibition of over 50 individual artworks created by Oakland Unified School District students, Kindergarten through 12th grade. Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Building Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland, 238-6952, www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

“The Legacy of Social Protest: The Disability Rights Movement” Through April 30: The first exhibition in a series dealing with Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Social Protest Movements of the 60s and 70s in California. Photograghs by: Cathy Cade, HolLynn D’Lil, Howard Petrick, Ken Stein. The Free Speech Cafe, Moffitt Undergraduate Library, University of California-Berkeley, hjadler@yahoo.com.  

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell. Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9, 2028 Ninth St., 841-4210, www.atelier9.com. 

“Quilted Paintings” Mar. 3 through May 4: Contemporary wall quilts by Roberta Renee Baker, landscapes, abstracts, altars and story quilts. Free. The Coffee Mill, 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-4224 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Feb. 2 through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Feb. 7 through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540 

“Being There” Feb. 23 through May 12: An exhibit of paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media works by 45 contemporary artists who live and/or work in Oakland. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

“Scene in Oakland, 1852 to 2002” Mar. 9 through Aug. 25: An exhibit that includes 66 paintings, drawings, watercolors and photographs dating from 1852 to the present, featuring views of Oakland by 48 prominent California artists. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

Readings 

Black Oak Books Feb. 27: 7:30 p.m., Author & Activist Randy Schutt discussing his new book "Inciting Democracy: A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good Society." 1491 Shattuck Ave., 486-0698. 

Cody’s on Fourth St. Feb. 27: 6 p.m., Rodney Yee brings “Yoga: The Poetry of the Body”; Feb. 28: Rosemary Wells talks about children, children’s books, and the importance of reading; All events begin at 7 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 1730 Fourth St., 559-9500, www.codysbooks.com.  

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Feb. 25: David Henry Sterry describes “Chicken: Self-portrait of a Young Man for Rent”; Feb. 26: Carter Scholz reads from “Radiance”; All events begin at 7:30 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

UC Berkeley Lunch Poems Reading Series Mar. 7: Marilyn Hacker reads from her most recent book, “Squares and Courtyards”. Free. Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Berkeley campus, 642-0137, www.berkeley.edu/calendar/events/poems 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore Mar. 7: Carl Parkes, author of “Moon Handbook: Southeast Asia”, presents a slide show exploring his travels in the region; Mar. 12: William Fienne describes his personal journey from Texas to North Dakota as he follows the northern migration of snow geese; Mar. 14: Gary Crabbe and Karen Misuraca present slides and read from their book, “The California Coast”; Mar. 19: Barbara and Robert Decker present a slide show focusing on the volcanoes of California and the Cascade Mountain Range; Mar. 21: Stefano DeZerega discusses opportunities for study, travel, and work in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe; All readings are free and start at 7:30 p.m., 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose, 843-3533. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Suzan Hagstrom reads from her book “Sara’s Children: The Destruction of Chielnik,” chronicling the survival of one brother and four sisters in Nazi death camps. Free. 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 x127 

Poetry 

Poetry Flash @ Cody’s Mar. 3: Myung Mi Kim, Harryette Mullen & Geoffrey O’Brien; Mar. 6: Bill Berkson, Albert Flynn DeSilver; Mar. 10: Leslie Scalapino, Dan Farrell; Mar. 13: Lucille Lang Day, Risa Kaparo; Mar. 20: Edward Smallfield, Truong Tran; Mar. 24: Susan Griffin, Honor Moore; All events begin at 7:30 p.m., $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Poetry Reading @ South Branch Berkeley Public Library Mar. 2: Bay Area Poets Coalition is holding an open reading. 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Free. 1901 Russell St. 

Word Beat Mar. 9: Sonia Greenfield and Megan Breiseth; Mar. 16, Q. R. Hand and Lu Pettus; Mar. 23: Lee Gerstmann and Sam Pierstorffs; Mar. 30: Eleanor Watson-Gove and Jim Watson-Gove; All shows 7 - 9 p.m., Coffee With A Beat, 458 Perkins, Oakland. 526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat. 

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, scaled to size. Trains run Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623. 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387. 

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org. 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. - Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821. 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley, 642-5132, www.lhs.berkeley.edu. 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions L

Leukemia survivor Franklin headed into his last season at Berkeley High 

Lee Franklin has a dramatic life story to tell, but right now there’s simply no time. There are games to be played, and in those games we find these beautiful frozen moments called crunch time, and in crunch time, Lee Franklin just wants the ball. There’s no time for anything else. 

A late season game for Berkeley High football, and the score is tight. It’s third and long, and Yellowjacket quarterback Raymond Pinkston drops back to pass. Suddenly faced with a host of onrushing defenders, Pinkston wisely pushes the eject button: he heaves a pass toward the sideline - and ducks.  

The pass, aimed vaguely in the general direction of wide receiver Lee Franklin, is quite high, sailing toward the bench, the cheerleaders, the stands. But Franklin, all 5-foot-10 of him, elevates. And twists, contorts his body impossibly. And stretches. And, somehow, gets a hand on the ball. Just one hand, but somehow the ball glues there - and Franklin tumbles earthward, ball in hand. First down Yellowjackets. Momentum, Yellowjackets. Money play. 

“He’s one of those kids who always wants the ball,” Berkeley High football coach Matt Bissell says. “We joke that he’s like the title of that Keyshawn Johnson book: ‘Just give me the damn ball, coach, and we’ll win’” 

“Lee’s a money player,” Berkeley High baseball coach Tim Moellering says. “He’s at his best when the game is on the line.” 

Money play - this phrase keeps coming up with Lee. How about a definition? Franklin: “A money player is the guy down the stretch, he wants the ball in his hands. He wants the last shot.” 

Two months later, the Berkeley High basketball team faces Bishop O’Dowd in the first round of the NCS playoffs. Trailing 48-47 with twenty seconds left, with Bishop O’Dowd in possession of the basketball, the Yellowjackets season seems finished. But Lee Franklin, point guard for the ‘Jackets, wants the ball. So he takes it. Snatching the ball from the Dragons’ Dave Brutocao-Kemp, Franklin drives, scores, and gives the Yellowjackets the lead, 49-47. Money play. Unfortunately the ‘Jackets go on to lose the game on another money play, a buzzer-beating jumper by O’Dowd’s Johnnie Bryant. 

“Things didn’t go our way too much,” Franklin said of the heartbreaker. “We fought hard though. It’s just part of life, part of the game.” 

So life goes on. And just two days later, there is Franklin, batting leadoff and playing second base for the Berkeley High baseball team in their season opener. The Yellowjackets lead 5-2 in the top of the sixth inning, but have worked themselves into a two-out jam: opposing runners stand on second and third. Lee Franklin wants the ball. And then, a soft chopper up the middle, which Franklin backhands. The batter appears likely to beat the throw to first, but the force is Franklin’s only chance to stop the runner from third from scoring on the play. So Franklin spins, and plants, and looks to first. If his hurried, off-balance throw isn’t on the money, the runner from second will also score. 

And this is exactly what the runner from second is thinking as he turns hard around third base. The second baseman spins, and plants, and throws, and the runner from second looks home. But then Franklin turns back toward the third base line, and, look here, he is still in possession of the baseball. Making an unusually cool split-second decision for a high school infielder, Franklin has chosen to sacrifice one run and likely save another by only faking the dangerous throw to first. And the runner from second, realizing a second too late and now trying desperately to slam on the brakes, is hung out to dry. A short rundown between third and home, and the Yellowjackets are out of the inning. One run is in, but the inning is over - and the ‘Jackets still lead 5-3, the score by which they would win the game. Money play. 

“I just like to make plays,” Franklin says. “I like to get my teammates into it, get the crowd into it. I like to play to the crowd.” 

That much is apparent. But what’s this about a dramatic life story? 

Franklin, the three-sport starter, isn’t the one to bring it up. Football. Basketball. Baseball. And now, as a senior, college applications – an outstanding student-athlete, Franklin is already accepted to University of Arizona and Fresno State, and is waiting to hear from USC and a few of the UCs. He is hoping to play football and/or baseball at one of those schools, and is sending out highlight reels and letters of interest to coaches. He is busy talking sports with his number one fan, his grandfather, whom Lee calls “Pops,” who attends all of Lee’s games. He is busy spending his last few months in town with his best friend Darryl Perkins, a basketball teammate, who is bound for Howard University. And he is, of course, busy making plays. There’s simply no room, no time, for Franklin’s disease. 

So we won’t spend too much time on it here: One week before turning 13, shortly after he got back from winning the Bambino World Series with the 11-12 year-old Oakland All-Star baseball team, Lee was diagnosed with leukemia. Suddenly he found himself subjected to a two-year period of extended hospital stays, radiation treatments, and chemotherapy. Long before contemplating his driver’s test, Franklin was faced with the looming possibility of a bone marrow transplant. 

Franklin’s body responded to the radiation and chemotherapy, and now Franklin considers himself one of the lucky ones. The leukemia went into remission, and the bone marrow transplant was averted. Doctors now tell him that there is a less than five percent chance that the disease will return. 

Franklin downplays the drama inherent in all of this, says and it was impossible to keep his thoughts from returning immediately to athletics: “I never thought that the leukemia was going to overtake me,” Franklin says. “I kept a positive attitude. My main goal was to get back to the baseball field, to the court, to the football field.” 

One gets the feeling that the young man considers this, too, “all part of life, part of the game.” Lee Franklin continues to survive, and he survives in order to continue to make plays.

Residents upset that Planning Commissioners didn’t give a recommendation for the hotel and spa’s grounds 

To the disappointment of many Berkeley and Oakland residents, the Oakland Planning Commission decided Wednesday night to recommend only the building and not the grounds of the 86-year-old Claremont Hotel and Spa for landmark status.  

The commission’s 6-1 decision did, however, change the zoning guidelines for the grounds from a residential S-14 to a commercial S-4, but the change does not provide any more safeguards for historic preservation.  

There will be a design review if construction or significant alteration takes place, said Patricia McGowan, an Oakland city planner. The public will be allowed to voice their concerns during this review. 

“But a design review is not intended to limit, restrict or make more complicated the routine maintenance and operation of the hotel,” said McGowan. 

The Planning Commission also specified that if the City Council adopts its recommendations, the final ordinance would also require a design review when the sight lines of the hotel building and the amount of open space are threatened. 

Neighbors of the Claremont in Berkeley and Oakland wanted both the building and the green space around the hotel to be landmarked.  

The neighborhood group went into last night’s meeting armed with the unanimous approval of the Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board to landmark “the grounds as a whole” and the support of city officials in Berkeley. They also had letters of recommendations from the state’s Office of Historic Preservation and a local preservation architect. 

While they were extremely happy that the building received landmark status, they were not happy that the grounds were left out because the Claremont is distinctive for being a garden hotel, said Wendy Markel of the Berkeley/Oakland Neighbors of the Claremont.  

“You could have some other hotel surrounded by a hot-scape, but that would be horrible,” she said. “You’d see nothing but gas stations. The way it is now, you could practically build a Taco Bell there.” 

But Denise Chapman, spokesperson for the Claremont, issued a statement saying that the company took their stewardship of the property very seriously. 

“We pride ourselves in being the only Claremont owners who have ever agreed that the building should be designated as a landmark,” she said. 

But Chapman said the company was happy with the decision not to landmark the grounds. “Our grounds are beautiful, but there is just not any special historical significance to our parking lots, tennis courts and gardens.” 

But it wasn’t just the grounds issue that rankled the neighbors, said Markel. It was also the process. 

“We worked like Trojans to do this thing and the city could have at least said thank you to the community or the Landmarks Board,” said Markel. “They didn’t even ask one question and it seemed like a done deal.” 

Markel, a Berkeley resident, said that she felt particularly embarrassed because the Oakland City Council seemed not to want Berkeley residents there. 

“The commission was rude. They were practically telling us to go home. ‘What were we doing here when we should be at home protecting the Berkeley Tennis Club?’ Well, it’s one-twenty-fifth the size of the hotel and it has less impact,” she said. 

But Berkeley residents should not think that Oakland does not value their input, said McGowan. When the commission spoke to the Berkeley folks, it was to the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission officials. The commission simply wanted these officials to apply the same recommendations to the city’s own property – that is, the Tennis Club facing the Claremont. 

The city of Oakland is only obligated to give notice to Oakland residents within 300 feet of the Claremont, said McGowan. “But we gave notices to Berkeley residents within 300 feet of the Claremont, too. If we didn’t want them to come, we only had to tell the Oakland residents.” 

Berkeley Councilmember Polly Armstrong, whose district is adjacent to the Claremont property, said she is not surprised by the Oakland Planning Commission’s recommendation.  

She has supported the neighbors’ plan throughout the process, but she thought that the hotel would succeed in securing its development interests. 

“The hotel is one of the biggest tax generators,” said Armstrong. “I’m afraid that money talks more than history or aesthetics.” 

More Berkeley residents than Oakland residents are affected, explained Armstrong, because the hotel’s grounds practically make up many the front yard of many Berkeley residents. Moreover, since there are few parks in the area, the Claremont’s grounds have become the substitute. 

“Now this throws everything on the backs of the neighbors,” said Armstrong. “It makes them the guardians of the grounds of the Claremont Hotel. The Claremont Hotel has lots of money and power. The neighbors have energy and dedication, but it’s like Jack and the Giant.” 

It’s too bad the Claremont is in Oakland, said Armstrong. “If Berkeley was controlling this, you bet your boots the grounds would have been landmarked.” 

The Planning Commission is still writing its report, which should be presented to the Oakland City Council for a vote in a couple of months.

Editor: 

I have to apologize to Darrel Moore for slipping up and mentioning that he might be interested in running for Mayor on election night. I did not clear this statement with him and he had in no way indicated to me he was going to run for Mayor. I was really hoping he might consider running for Mayor because I think so highly of him.  

I guess I got carried away and spoke of my hopes rather than reality. I’m truly sorry for the problems this has caused him. At election time, people like to dream about candidates and what it would be like for them to run, but that does not mean it will become a reality. I hope to see a fine man such as Darrel Moore in higher political office someday. He is doing a great job right now as our Peralta Trustee. 

Councilmember Dona Spring

LOS ANGELES – Ryan Forehan-Kelly tied his career high with 20 points and Amit Tamir’s inside basket snapped a tie with 1:39 remaining, lifting No. 25 California over UCLA 67-61 Thursday night in the first round of the Pacific-10 Conference tournament. 

The third-seeded Golden Bears (22-7) will play No. 2 seed Arizona in Friday’s semifinals at Staples Center. 

UCLA freshman Ryan Walcott’s basket tied the game at 59 with 2:06 remaining after the Bruins rallied from 10 points down. 

But Tamir scored down low off an inbounds pass, helping the Bears outscore UCLA 8-2 over the final 1:39. Jason Kapono, Billy Knight and Matt Barnes — three of the Bruins’ best shooters — all missed down the stretch. 

Joe Shipp added 18 points for the Bears, who got six of their nine 3-pointers from Forehan-Kelly. 

Barnes led UCLA with 15 points. Kapono added 10 points and Walcott 10. 

The Bruins committed 19 turnovers, including six by freshman Cedric Bozeman and five by Walcott — not surprising because they averaged 18.5 miscues in splitting two games with Cal this season. 

Trailing 58-48, the Bruins scored eight points in a row to get to 58-57 with 2:31 remaining. Walcott had six points, including a 3-pointer. 

After Brian Wethers hit one of two free throws to put Cal ahead 59-57, Walcott tied the game with 2:06 left. 

After Tamir’s go-ahead basket, Shipp stole the ball from Walcott. Wethers, A.J. Diggs and Shantay Legans combined to hit six free throws in the closing 47 seconds. 

UCLA won the first conference tournament in 1987. The Bears were 2-4 in the first four years of the tournament before it was dropped in 1991. 

Despite playing in front of a rowdy partisan crowd at Staples Center, the Bruins couldn’t sustain a rally long enough to stay in front. 

A basket by Kapono provided UCLA’s only lead, 35-34, early in the second half. Cal ran off straight, including consecutive 3-pointers by Forehan-Kelly, for a 43-35 lead. 

Dan Gadzuric dunked for his first points of the game, launching a 9-2 spurt that drew UCLA within one with 11:35 remaining. 

But Forehan-Kelly stopped the Bruins with his sixth 3-pointer for a 48-44 lead. 

The Bruins rallied twice from nine points down in the first half to trail 34-31 at the break. Barnes hit three 3-pointers and could’ve gotten UCLA closer, but was 1-of-4 from the line over the final 1:12. 

UCLA wound up sixth in the regular-season standings, their worst ever finish in the conference. Their 65-62 loss to Oregon last Saturday kept them from grabbing a share of second. 

It used to be that a trip to the doctor’s office would only get you some foul-tasting medicine. Oakland Children’s Hospital, however, hopes that every kid can go home with a book. 

“Our goal is to make sure every kid has a book,” said Monique Williams of the hospital’s Reach Out and Read program. 

Now the Oakland Children’s Hospital will get a leg up from Berkeley residents. Mayor Shirley Dean kicked off a drive Thursday morning for the Half Pint Library, a project that aims to provide books to children who cannot visit libraries or bookstores. 

The three-year-old project aims to collect books and also build the shelves or carts to distribute them. It grew out of an idea by a Half-Price Books employee, and the stores serve as donation points. 

The project has helped institutions around the country, but the new partnership with the Oakland Children’s Hospital will create the first Half Pint Library in California. 

The Berkeley store has been involved with the program from the start, said Matt Dalton, Half-Price Books’ local district manager. So far, the Berkeley store has collected 600 books for the hospital and the three stores in the Bay Area have collected 1,500. 

Dean said she wanted to do her part to spread the word and will be circulating a memo to city employees.  

“It’s really important that when children are in the hospital for a period of time, and they’re frightened, that they have other things to do other than their medical care,” said Dean.  

Not only would this project give kids the opportunity to read books that might talk about the hospital experience or about kids coping with the same diseases, said Dean, but it also keeps them from getting bored. 

“Reading keeps the mind sharp and focused,” she said. “It also gives them pleasure and fuels the imagination. I can’t imagine any better thing for a child in a strange setting.” 

The Children’s Hospital has previously relied on donations from Boy and Girl Scout troops, community organizations and individuals to stock their waiting rooms and provide books for longer-term patients. Foundation funding and a discount program from publisher Scholastic, Inc. helped buy new books. 

Williams said this project could make their one-child-one-book dream a reality.  

Berkeley residents interested in donating new or gently used books should drop by Half-Price Books at 1849 Solano Ave. For more information, call (510) 526-6080.

The St. Mary’s-Oakland Tech Northern California Division I semifinal game on Saturday night will be played at California State University at Hayward, with tipoff tentatively set for 7:30 p.m. 

The boys’ game will follow a girls’ Division I semifinal between Oakland Tech and Archbishop Mitty. The girls’ game will start at 6 p.m. 

The other boys’ Division I semifinal between De La Salle and Oakland High will be played at St. Mary’s College in Moraga at 7:30 p.m.

Today is Friday, March 8, the 67th day of 2002. There are 298 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

Three hundred years ago, on March 8, 1702, England’s Queen Anne ascended the throne upon the death of King William III. 

On this date: 

In 1841, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., the “Great Dissenter,” was born in Boston. 

In 1854, U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry made his second landing in Japan. Within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese. 

In 1874, the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, died in Buffalo, N.Y. 

In 1917, Russia’s “February Revolution” (so called because of the Old Style calendar being used by Russians at the time) began with rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg. 

In 1917, the U.S. Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule. 

In 1930, the 27th president of the United States, William Howard Taft, died in Washington. 

In 1942, Japanese forces captured Rangoon, Burma, during World War II. 

In 1965, the United States landed about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam. 

In 1986, four French television crew members were abducted in west Beirut; a caller claimed Islamic Jihad was responsible. (All four were eventually released.) 

In 1999, former New York Yankees baseball star Joe DiMaggio died in Hollywood, Fla. at age 84. 

Ten years ago: President George H.W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton headed toward “Super Tuesday” claiming big boosts from weekend victories. Ninety people were killed when a ferry carrying pilgrims to a Buddhist shrine collided with an oil tanker in the Gulf of Thailand. 

Five years ago: President Clinton, in keeping with his push for private businesses and churches to hire off welfare rolls, ordered federal agencies to do the same. 

One year ago: The Republican-controlled House voted for an across-the-board tax cut of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, handing President Bush a major victory only 48 days into his term. Scott Waddle, the embattled commander of the Navy submarine that collided with a Japanese fishing vessel off Hawaii, offered a tearful apology to the families of some of the victims. Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet, died in London at age 102. 

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Sue Ane Langdon is 66. Baseball player-turned-author Jim Bouton is 63. Actress Lynn Redgrave is 59. Actor-director Micky Dolenz is 57. Lyricist Carole Bayer Sager is 55. Actress Jaime Lyn Bauer is 53. Baseball player Jim Rice is 49. Singer Gary Numan is 44. Actor Aidan Quinn is 43. Actress Camryn Manheim is 41. Actress Andrea Parker is 33. Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. is 26. Actor James Van Der Beek is 25. Rhythm-and-blues singer Kameelah Williams (702) is 24. Pop musicians David, Bob and Clint Moffatt are 18.

Oregon 86, Washington 64 

LOS ANGELES – Regular-season champion Oregon played like an also-ran for most of the first half in the first Pacific-10 Conference tournament game in 12 years. 

The second half was a different matter. 

Luke Jackson scored 16 of his 27 points after halftime, and leading scorer Frederick Jones also got going in the final 20 minutes Thursday as the ninth-ranked Ducks beat Washington 86-64. 

Jackson, who also had eight rebounds, made all of his career-high four 3-pointers in the second half, which began with the Huskies leading 42-35. 

The Ducks, who trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half, moved within one on 3-pointers by Jackson and Jones to begin the second half. Jones’ field goal was his first of the game. 

A steal and dunk by Jones with 13:59 left gave Oregon its first lead since the opening eight minutes, and a 3-pointer by Jackson 35 seconds later snapped a 47-all tie and put the Ducks ahead for good. 

USC 103, Stanford 78 

LOS ANGELES – Despite what the rankings say, Southern California has proven it’s a better team than Stanford this season. 

The 22nd-ranked Trojans built a 23-point lead in the first half and never looked back, beating the No. 16 Cardinal 103-78 Thursday night in the first round of the Pacific-10 tournament. 

It was USC’s third victory over the Cardinal (19-9) this season. The Trojans won the first meeting by eight points in Los Angeles, then won the second by 19 points in Stanford’s worst loss at home since 1993. 

Sam Clancy led five USC players in double figures with 25 points. He was voted the Pac-10 player of the year Wednesday. 

Brandon Granville added 20 points and 11 assists, Desmon Farmer 19 points, David Bluthenthal 17 points, and Jerry Dupree 10 points. 

The fourth-seeded Trojans (21-8) will play top-seeded Oregon in Friday’s semifinals at Staples Center. 

Arizona 73, Arizona State 56 

LOS ANGELES – The Arizona players cleared the air after a recent three-game losing streak. 

And Luke Walton got a haircut. So far, so good. 

Walton had 25 points and eight rebounds Thursday night as the Wildcats (No. 14 ESPN/USA Today, No. 15 AP) beat archrival Arizona State 73-56 in the opening round of the first Pacific-10 Conference tournament since 1990. 

The second-seeded Wildcats (20-9) meet the winner of the UCLA-California game in Friday night's second semifinal matchup, after top-seeded Oregon faces fourth-seeded Southern California. 

Salim Stoudamire and Will Bynum added 10 points each for Arizona. 

Jason Braxton had 12 points and four assists and Chad Prewitt and Curtis Millage added nine points each for seventh-seeded ASU (14-14), which finished its season by facing six straight ranked teams – the most in school history. 

The Sun Devils were 1-5 during the stretch, beating only UCLA on Feb. 16. 

Prewitt also had 12 rebounds for ASU, who made only 2 of 12 foul shots in equaling its season-low point total.

A whale of a tale 

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — Call this bobcat Jonah. 

Workers at the Science Center of Connecticut got a surprise Wednesday morning when they came across an 8-month-old bobcat that had been placed inside a whale statue that sits in front of the building. 

The 20-inch bobcat was left in a pet carrier in the belly of the 60-foot statue. A note attached to the box said the animal was not relating well with humans. 

“What a way to start the day, to have to take a bobcat out of a whale,” said Hank Gruner, the center’s vice president of programs and exhibits. 

Bobcats are not a serious threat to humans, said Paul Rego, a wildlife biologist for the state Department of Environmental Protection. They are native to the area around Hartford, and sightings are not uncommon, he said. 

Initially very agitated, the animal eventually calmed down and workers placed it in an outdoor cage. 

“Given his surroundings, he’s doing well,” said Gruner, who said that inappropriate pets are frequently abandoned to the center. It is illegal to possess a bobcat in Connecticut. 

The science center will assess whether the animal is healthy, and whether it will remain at the museum or be given to another agency which can better care for it, he said. 

The itchiest city  

SIDNEY, Neb. — People in this western Nebraska city were left scratching their heads over a recent bit of recognition. 

This city of about 6,000 people has knocked Denver out of the top spot as the “itchiest” city in the nation, according to the Lanacane Dry Itchy Skin Index. The February study placed Goodland, Kan., second, followed by the Colorado cities of Colorado Springs, Denver and Pueblo. 

“It’s a safe bet you won’t see us putting up a sign saying, ’Welcome to the itchiest city in America,”’ Sidney City Manager Gary Person said with a laugh. 

The itch index was created by the University of Delaware’s Center for Climatic Research and Lanacane, a manufacturer of lotions and skin cremes. The itchiest cities are usually in mountainous areas and the high plains, where dry winds and heavy use of heating systems rob skin of its moisture. 

A dry climate has its advantages, Person said. The lack of humidity makes for mild summer evenings and winters don’t seem as bitter.  

Kryptonite banned  

NEW YORK — The creator of Superman has decided it simply can’t allow Kryptonite to be sold on store shelves. 

DC Comics filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday to try to stop a hair company from marketing a green hair gel called Kryptonite. 

The comics company sued Wella Corp. for unspecified damages, claiming that the gel’s name infringes on the name given to an element from Superman’s home planet, Krypton, that weakens the hero. 

According to the suit, DC Comics first used the word “Kryptonite” in a 1943 Superman radio show. It said the word gained particular fame in a 1945 radio episode when the Scarlet Widow obtained a chunk of Kryptonite and gave it to several fellow villains to use against Superman. 

Leila Meresman, a Wella spokeswoman, said the company would not comment on the Kryptonite lawsuit. 

The possible effect on the man of steel notwithstanding, the company said in its online advertising that Kryptonite gel offers humans “extreme styling” and an “acrylic shine.” 

——— 

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Legislators tired of worrying about the state budget enjoyed a perfect diversion, zipping around in the Capitol on a battery-operated scooter. 

Segway, maker of the Segway Human Transporter, wants the Legislature to regulate it like a bicycle when it is operated on roads, but like a wheelchair when it is operated elsewhere. 

The company offered lawmakers rides Wednesday to show what they mean. 

“This would be perfect for meter maids,” said Sen. Roger Breske, 63, who tested out the two-wheeled scooter. “Man, they could write tickets like crazy.” 

The Democrat from Eland rode forward and backward across the marble floor outside his office on the scooter, which uses gyroscopes to detect shifts in a rider’s weight and move in that direction. The 85-pound scooter has a top speed of about 12 mph. 

The Assembly and Senate were expected to vote Thursday on measures to regulate the vehicle. The proposals would give the rider the same rights as a pedestrian, said Matthew Dailida, a lobbyist for Segway. 

Rep. Dan Schooff was among those eager for a ride. 

“We’re going to have to outlaw it unless I can ride it,” Schooff said, before taking the scooter on a spin around the Capitol rotunda. 

Friday 

Baseball – Cal vs. Stanford, 2 p.m. at Evans Diamond 

Baseball – St. Mary’s vs. Castlemont, 3:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s College High School 

Saturday 

Track & Field – St. Mary’s at De La Salle Invitational, 9 a.m. at De La Salle High School 

Baseball – Berkeley vs. Irvington, noon at Irvington High School 

Baseball – Cal vs. Stanford, 2 p.m. at Evans Diamond 

Sunday 

Baseball – Cal vs. Stanford, 2 p.m. at Evans Diamond

LOS ANGELES — A young man who heard the fatal dog attack on Diane Whipple testified Thursday he thought it was a rape or domestic violence when screams echoed through a stairwell of a San Francisco apartment building. 

“I heard the dog barking throughout the whole thing. But it never occurred to me, nor did I have any reason to believe, that the dog was the agent of attack,” David Kuenzi said 

He followed a series of witnesses who portrayed the dogs involved in the attack as gentle, and a decision by Judge James Warren to look into whether an attorney violated a gag order by attacking the credibility of Sharon Smith, the victim’s domestic partner, during a TV interview. 

“My client has the right to have her side told,” attorney Nedra Ruiz, who represents defendant Marjorie Knoller, said outside court after the judge set a May hearing. 

Knoller, who was present during the fatal attack, is accused of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and having a mischievous dog that killed a person. Knoller’s husband, Robert Noel, faces the latter two charges. 

Whipple, 33, was mauled on Jan. 26, 2001, in a hallway of her San Francisco apartment building in an attack by her neighbors’ two big presa canario dogs, Bane and Hera. The trial was moved to Los Angeles because of extensive publicity. 

Kuenzi was a visitor to San Francisco and intended to stay with a friend in the building but got there before the friend arrived home. 

He said he was terrified by the screams. 

“I imagined at this point she was being raped,” he said. 

The screams began as a shrill, high-pitched sound which ultimately became a whimper, he said, and then there was a voice saying, “Stop, please stop.” 

“It was from someone being physically assaulted,” he said. 

Kuenzi said he ran up and down the stairwell, afraid to enter the floor where the attack was occurring and uncertain what to do. 

“I knew I was extremely close,” he said. “I knew it was a very violent situation. I was scared and I thought, ’I have to get the police.”’ 

He said he had to go down to the lobby to get reception on his cell phone. 

The defense called him to bolster its theory that Knoller was telling the attacking dogs to stop, a possibility raised by another neighbor. But Kuenzi declined to say that the voice of the screamer was any different from the voice saying “Stop, please stop.” 

“I now know there was a violent situation. I presumed it was the same woman saying, ’Stop, please stop.’ It seemed the woman was no longer screaming but was begging for mercy. It was truly terrifying,” he said. 

Another defense witness, Dave Neville, told the jury that two weeks after the killing he saw two dogs that looked exactly like presa canarios being walked five blocks from the Pacific Heights apartment where Whipple was mauled. 

Neville said the dogs’ owner gave him an unfriendly look and he turned away. 

Ruiz, who called the witness, explained later that she was trying to show that there might have been other dogs in the neighborhood that scared passers-by. She suggested that those who reported scary encounters with Bane and Hera may have been mistaken. 

Other defense witnesses included kennel owners and friends of the defendants who described petting and playing with the big dogs without being threatened. 

Kim Boyd, a legal client of the couple, said she visited their apartment, accompanied Noel down an elevator with one dog and saw a building tenant pass without incident. 

On cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer stressed that Boyd saw the dogs in their home environment for only a few minutes and could not say what they did at other times when they met up with their neighbors. 

“The issue legally is whether Ms. Knoller had knowledge these dogs were dangerous. But the law does not require that they were always vicious,” Hammer said outside court. 

A couple who operate the Rowdy Creek Pet Motel near Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California, also vouched for the dogs. 

Stephen Tornay and his wife, Galene, both described the dogs as “nice.” 

The dogs were left at the kennel twice in the weeks just before the killing. 

“They were big, massive dogs, a walking muscle would be a good way to describe them,” Stephen Tornay noted. 

The judge said a hearing on whether Ruiz violated his order will be held May 17. 

Warren, who had barred attorneys from commenting on the credibility of witnesses, was sent a transcript of a Fox News program interview in which Ruiz said Whipple’s partner was “exaggerating or lying” about Whipple being bitten previously. 

Interviewer Greta Van Susteren then asked: “Are you saying that Sharon lied about it? Is that what you’re saying?” Ruiz replied: “Yes, I am. I’m saying that....” 

RENO, Nev. — A winter storm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow on parts of the Sierra Thursday restricted travel over all mountain passes and threatened to bring more snowfall over night. 

A winter storm warning remained in effect into Friday morning at Lake Tahoe and much of the Sierra. Two feet of snow was reported by Thursday evening at Alpine Meadows ski resort at Tahoe City, Calif. 

Truckee Meadows Community College canceled classes Thursday night as the snow made its way down the mountains into Reno and Carson City, where a winter weather advisory was in effect and winds were gusting up to 32 mph. That advisory extended across much of northern Nevada as the storm moved east Thursday night. 

Some travel restrictions put in place late Wednesday were removed during the day Thursday, but the highway patrols in Nevada and California reinstated requirements for snow tires or chains across most interstates and highways in the Sierra. 

Chains were mandatory Thursday night on U.S. Interstate 80 from Truckee, Calif., east to Baxter, Calif. 

Chains or snow tires also were in effect on most or all of the Mount Rose Highway, State Route 431 to from Reno to Lake Tahoe; State Routes 28 and 88 at Lake Tahoe; and U.S. Highway 50. 

Chains or snow tires were also required on Geiger Grade southeast of Reno to Virginia City. 

Officials at Alpine Meadows said they anctipated an additional 2 feet of snow by Friday morning.  

Forecasters said another storm on the horizon could bring another dose of winter late Sunday. 

Tightening those doggone rear-view mirrors 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

I need your help. Here's the dilemma: I have a big black lab that rides around in my front seat all the time. When she sees something offensive – say, a cyclist or, God forbid, a truck – she is compelled to launch herself into the windshield, snarling and barking like the hound of the Baskervilles. In doing this, her big head always whacks the rear-view mirror out of place. Now the mirror is so loose that every time I hit a bump, it shifts and I can't see. I can’t get it to stay in place. I could replace it, but the car is a ‘74 Dart, and I don't want to put in a junky plastic thing. I could get a newer old one from the junkyard, but the same thing would eventually happen. So what do I do? I started thinking about duct-taping the dog to the seat, but her whining would make my ears bleed. Is there some kind of spray that would stiffen it, or is there a way to tighten it? – Kristen 

RAY: I'm pretty sure that by ‘74, the Dart mirror had an adjustment screw on the back, just for this purpose. 

TOM: That might even have been the major upgrade for that model year! 

RAY: If you reach behind the mirror – between the back of the mirror and the windshield – you should find a small screw. With a mini-screwdriver, tighten it up, and the mirror adjustment should stiffen back up and hold the mirror in place. 

TOM: If your mirror doesn’t have an adjustment screw, then a junkyard replacement is the next best bet. And you don't have to pull one from a ‘74 Dart. You can get one from any car, especially if it's the kind that glues onto the windshield. Or you can stay in the Chrysler family ***and upgrade to one from an Aspen or Volare. Now THAT’S living! 

RAY: By the way, there are "dog seat belts" you can buy that keep the dog more or less in place on the seat. And she'll eventually stop whining. That would solve your mirror problem, your (unmentioned) dog-slime-on-the-windshield problem and it would be safer for the dog, too, if you ever had an accident or had to stop short. 

TOM: Yeah. The only problem is teaching the dog how to buckle it.  

Anti-theft devices aren’t very effective  

Dear Tom and Ray: 

We just bought a new Toyota Camry – one of the most-wanted cars ... by thieves! I would like to buy an alarm system of some sort for this thing but am having trouble finding any information or comparison data. I hesitate to go to a dealer, since their job is to sell me stuff. Any help would be appreciated. – John 

TOM: Geez, this is a tough one, John. We're pretty much opposed to car alarms. 

RAY: Think about it. When you're lying in bed and you hear a car alarm go off down the street, what do you do? Do you jump out of bed and run toward that car in an attempt to thwart a crime? Of course not. If there were a crime in progress, that’s the last place you’d want to be. And most likely, it’s just that someone bumped into the car and set off the alarm. So you ignore it. And then – as it goes on for 10 minutes – you curse it. 

TOM: So we find that in reality, audible alarms are more of a deterrent to neighborhood sleep than to car theft. 

RAY: Plus, criminals get to know the new alarms pretty quickly, so they learn to cut the wire to the siren anyway. At least THEY’RE considerate of your neighbors’ need for sleep, even if you're not. 

TOM: That’s why our alarm of choice is a Rottweiler. That will deter most thieves, although I’m told it can be defeated by a bucket of extra-crispy Kentucky Fried Chicken. 

RAY: If you want an inanimate theft deterrent, John, I’d have to recommend an ignition-kill device. There are several varieties of kill switches. The general idea is to cut off electricity to something that the engine needs in order to run. 

TOM: The simplest ones cut off current to the starter. But if they just interrupt the hot wire under the dashboard (which is the easiest way to install them), an experienced thief can splice that wire back together and still get your car started. 

RAY: That’s why we prefer ignition-kill devices that are installed further down the line. They can be used to cut off power to the fuel pump, the fuel injectors or the spark plugs. Then the car will crank, but it won't start. And that makes it much harder to figure out what's going on. 

TOM: And most thieves are not going to hang around long enough to diagnose your car. They’re going to get out of there and move on to something else. Or they’re going to call their buddy with the tow truck. 

RAY: So the option we like best is getting good insurance, keeping it paid up and living your life without worrying about your car. After all, they sell about 400,000 Camrys a year in the United States. Remember, it’s just a car, John. It’s hardly irreplaceable.

The “lady of the forest” is in all her glory this time of year, her pure-white bark is especially lovely as she mingles with spruces and other dark-green evergreens. Unfortunately, the lady — a nickname for white birch — is often not nearly as happy in a suburban yard as she is in the forest. 

Be careful if you plant this lady. So much of gardening involves trying to extend the growing season or grow cold-tender plants farther north.  

Our native white birch has the opposite problem, loving cold winters and cool summers. 

Hot weather causes birch to languish, increasing susceptibility to other problems, such as bronze birch borer. This pest bores into the bark, causing whole branches to die back. Keep an eye on the lady because another pest, the birch leafminer, also stands ready for attack. This pest chews inside the leaves, which weakens the tree and increases likelihood of borer attack. 

Be careful when you plant a “white birch” that you really know what you are putting in the ground. The lady has a few cousins also sometimes sold as “white birch.” Most notable among the cousins are the European white birch and the Japanese white birch. 

The European species is widely planted and easily recognized by the large, black, diamond-shaped markings on its white bark. It is popular because its bark turns white at an early age.  

Young trunks and branches on our native birch are dark, reddish brown. With age, though, bark on European white birch turns black. 

The Japanese white birch is perhaps a better choice. This tree grows large, but remains graceful because of its thin branches.  

The variety Whitespire tolerates adverse weather so it is less likely to be attacked by borers. 

If you plant lady of the forest, give it special attention, whether its origins lie in our forests, or those of Europe or Japan.  

It does not like sites exposed to full sun and hot temperatures. Coddle it with water if it’s thirsty in summer. (Impatiens planted at its feet will quickly tell you — by wilting — when the soil needs water.) Feed it if it is hungry and keep an eye out for those borers and leafminers. 

Birch is not a frail tree in all respects. Like bamboo, the trunks are pliable, so they resist breakage. Trees bowed to the ground by ice storms slowly and gracefully unbend as the sun warms the trunks. 

What if you were ready to plant your garden and had nowhere to buy seeds? In many parts of the world, each growing season is not heralded in with garden catalogs in mailboxes and seedpackets lined up on racks in stores. Rather, gardeners not only grow vegetables and flowers, but also the seeds for them. Here, you might want to grow some seeds to ensure a supply of a particular variety of vegetable or flower not readily, perhaps not always, available. 

Perhaps your main reason to grow your own seeds would be the same reason that you garden in the first place. Gardening satisfies a primal urge to celebrate and partake in the cycles of life, with growth and decline measured not only month by month through the seasons, but also in terms of years. Growing the seeds that grow into your carrots, rather than just the carrots themselves, widens your participation in that cycle. 

Growing garden seeds is not difficult as long as you follow a few guidelines. Two worthwhile books on this topic include “Seed to Seed” (Suzanne Ashworth, 1991) and “Saving Seeds” (Marc Rogers, 1990). Don’t save seeds from hybrids or you’ll get plants different, and generally worse, than the ones that produced the seed. A hybrid is denoted as such on the seed packet. 

Seeds you do save should always be from the best and healthiest plants, not necessarily ones that produce the most seed. Collect seeds when fully ripe. If seeds ripening in a dried fruit (a dried bean pod, for example) tend to drop to the ground, tie a paper or cheesecloth bag around the nearly ripe fruit. Finally, store your seeds in a dry place. 

If you are a beginning seed-saver, keep your efforts in step with your enthusiasm and knowledge. Special techniques are required to save seeds of plants which are biennials (onions, and carrots, for example), or which need cross-pollination (the cabbage family, for example) or need strict isolation to avoid cross-pollination (squashes, for example). Also, at least initially, do not put effort into saving too many different kinds of seeds. 

The easiest seeds to grow are from plants that are annuals and self-pollinating. These include pea, bean, lettuce, pepper, and eggplant.  

Tomato also is in this category, and saving and growing seeds each year is the way many gardeners are able to harvest delectable “heirloom” varieties passed on to them by neighbors or relatives. 

Our father, although he had never worked in the trades, definitely was a handyman’s handyman. He loved his workshop. He favored plumbing, painting and carpentry, but was hesitant about doing electrical work. And, we never saw him do ceramic-tile work. 

As we have developed our own interests in construction and home improvements, we have discovered that our father’s fear of ceramic-tile work was not unfounded. Tiling is fun, but some tasks, such as those requiring intricate tile cutting and notching, can be very difficult. Also, some types of tile are more difficult to install than others. 

Generally speaking, the larger the tile the easier it is to install. This is because when large tiles are used, fewer have to be installed to cover a given area. This means less cutting, less grouting and less chance for mistakes. Tiny tiles are extremely hard to install because there are so many lines to consider, straighten and grout. 

The big problem with installing tile — even with the small jobs — is the unevenness of the surface (countertop, wall, ceiling or floor) to which the tile is going to be applied. Tile seems to exacerbate waviness in a surface. Most uneven surfaces look worse after tile is applied. In a home, practically every surface is wavy to some extent. Mortar is used to correct this kind of problem. Mortar is a substrate that can be made to be perfectly smooth no matter how wavy the surface. In short, troweled-in-place mortar is a backing that adds strength and smoothness for tile. A mortar bed can be built to work over a waterproof layer, like in a shower. 

First, a waterproof membrane is installed, then the mortar bed, and finally the tile and grout. When the grout fails and water gets behind the tile and mortar, the waterproof membrane protects the framing. All of these layers make tile in mortar very expensive. 

Thirty years ago, builders decided to try a new technique — tiling directly to wallboard. No mortar. At first everything looked great and tile showers in modern subdivision homes were selling like hotcakes. Soon after their warranties ran out, these unlucky homeowners were spending big bucks repairing those tiled showers. Before long, folks were discovering that tile-on-wallboard wasn’t a good application. Soon after, better building departments started to outlaw the technique. Before long it was apparent that another alternative had to be found. Wallboard wasn’t the answer and mortar-in-place installations were simply too difficult and expensive. 

Finally, a material was developed to replace wallboard for wet-tile installations. It’s known generically as “cement-backer board” or “mortarboard.” Mortarboard can be installed over a waterproof barrier and has the same water-stopping qualities of tile in mortar installation. Mortarboard is very different from the old-fashioned and far-too-flimsy tile-on-wallboard. Now you know why cement-backer board was developed and why it has become so popular. Once the grout starts to leak, the surface below doesn’t fall apart. Backer board was developed to hold together when attacked by moisture, and it does a good job of it. 

Even though mortarboard resists moisture better than does wallboard, it doesn’t smooth the surface. If the studs are crooked, the mortarboard will telescope the problem through. If you want good results, you have to make sure the wall studs are perfectly straight and that the face of each stud perfectly aligns with the face of each adjacent stud before applying the waterproof plastic and the mortarboard. Shimming and planning the studs as needed would be a smart thing to do. 

Each manufacturer will recommend a different fastening method. Follow the manufacturer’s installation instructions to the letter. What you do with one product might not be recommended with another. Once the board is up, joints are taped and filled with joint compound — usually latex-fortified mortar. Latex-fortified mortar is a fancy way of saying mortar mixed with glue. Be sure to leave a 1/8th-inch gap between sheets for expansion. Mortarboard expands and contracts just as wood does. 

Some say that mortarboard is the answer as a base for tile floors. We don’t agree completely. Yes, mortarboard is an alternative to plywood. However, troweled-in-place mortar is still the finest way of doing any tile job.  

With mortarboard, the floor that it will rest on must not vary in height more than 1/8th-inch. Believe it or not, this is a rather stringent tolerance. Most manufacturers recommended that a thin coat of mortar be used to level the floor before the mortarboard is applied. 

We sometimes wonder if our father would have tried tile work if mortarboard had been available then. We think he would have. 

If you are extremely careful with mortarboard, the job can look magnificent — without a lot of work, experience or cost. We have seen mortarboard tile jobs that look better than others where the tile was set in troweled-on mortar. However, a good mortar job is always better than a good mortarboard job. 

Tip of the week: Mildew Elimination 

We have long been passing along this formula to eliminate mildew. You can use it on any washable surface. All you do is add 1 quart of liquid laundry bleach and 1 cup of powdered laundry detergent – less if concentrated – to 3 quarts of warm water. Scrub the solution onto the mildew-affected area, and be sure to keep it wet until the black mildew turns white (when mildew changes color from black to white, it’s dead). Although this is a relatively safe concoction, to be certain of safety, use eye protection, wear rubber gloves and make sure there is plenty of ventilation.

PALO ALTO — Standard & Poor’s lowered the credit ratings for Hewlett-Packard Co. on Thursday, saying the potential benefits of the planned $22 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. are offset by the deal’s high risks. 

HP’s credit rating was lowered from single A-minus to double A-minus, and its commercial paper rating was lowered from A-1 plus to A-2 plus. The reductions may make it more expensive for the Palo Alto-based company to borrow money. 

S&P said it would have lowered HP’s ratings even without the proposed Compaq purchase, because HP’s profits and outlook have become increasinly uncertain in the weak market for computer hardware. 

The rating agency found some potential positives for HP — and its credit rating — in the Compaq deal. S&P said it “recognizes the strategic validity of the merger” and “the improved market position of the combined company.” 

But it said those positive factors were offset by the significant risks involved with integrating the companies. 

Even if the deal is rejected by HP shareholders March 19, both companies could be in for downgrades because of concern over their strategies as independent companies, S&P said. 

HP said in a statement that it was disappointed with the S&P decision and was confident it has been planning adequately for the complex absorption of Compaq. The company had $7.1 billion in cash and short-term investments in January, with debt of $6.0 billion and operating cash flow of $4.8 billion. 

HP shares fell 18 cents to $20.00 on the New York Stock Exchange, where shares of Houston-based Compaq gained 17 cents to $11.15. 

The contested acquisition got two important blessings this week, from U.S. antitrust regulators on Wednesday and from Institutional Shareholder Services, an influential proxy advisory firm, on Tuesday. But most analysts say the HP shareholder vote is too close to call.

SAN FRANCISCO — Fast-growing online DVD rental service Netflix Inc. plans to raise $115 million with an initial public offering of its stock, providing another flicker of optimism in the depressed dot-com industry. 

The Los Gatos-based company’s filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission didn’t specify how many shares will be sold or provide a per-share price target. Netflix will list its shares under the ticker symbol “NFLX” on the Nasdaq Stock Market. 

Earlier in the week, online clearance center Overstock.com Inc. of Salt Lake City filed an IPO seeking to raise $36.8 million. 

By pursuing the IPOs, Netflix and Overstock are betting skittish investors will be more receptive to putting money into unprofitable Internet companies with potentially bright futures. 

Wall Street has spurned most dot-com companies after being burned badly by the IPOs of Internet companies that went bankrupt over the past two years, saddling investors with huge losses. The frosty climate prompted Netflix to scrap a previously planned IPO in July 2000. 

“I wouldn’t say these offerings mean the door is open again, but there may be room for deals from companies that seem to have the right idea and right platform,” said David Menlow, president of IPOfinancial.com. 

Although the worst of the bleeding appears to be over, the dot-com industry remains wounded. Another 18 Internet companies collapsed in February, bringing the total number of dot-com failures to 806 since January 2000, according to Webmergers.com. The February failures represented the lowest total since August 2000, when 10 Internet companies shut down, Webmergers said. 

The stock market’s reception to the IPO of online payment service PayPal last month represented a heartening sign for dot-com startups. 

After overcoming legal and regulatory concerns, Palo Alto-based PayPal sold its IPO at $13 per share and the stock soared 55 percent in its first day of trading. PayPal shares have dipped since then, but the stock remains above its IPO price. 

Like PayPal, Netflix is steadily attracting new customers to its service, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the company says 2.6 percent of all households subscribe to its rental service. Netflix isn’t as popular in the East because DVDs take longer to be delivered there from the company’s only distribution center in San Jose. 

Since launching its service in September 1999, Netflix has signed up 500,000 subscribers, most of whom pay $19.95 per month to rent up to three DVDs at a time. Netflix mails the DVDs to customers, who return them in postage paid envelopes. 

Customers can keep Netflix DVDs as long as they want without incurring late fees, a feature that has helped the company lure business away from Blockbuster. Netflix offers a library of 11,500 movies. 

The service’s popularity still hasn’t translated into a profit. The company has lost $136.9 million since its inception, including a loss of $38.3 million last year on revenue of $74.3 million. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.netflix.com 

http://www.overstock.com 

SAN JOSE— Chip-maker Intel Corp. tightened the range of its first-quarter sales forecast Thursday, saying demand for PC processors remains stable but the communications chip business is weak. 

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company said it expects revenue to be between $6.6 billion and $6.9 billion — within the company’s previous guidance of between $6.4 billion and $7 billion for the period. 

Analysts are expecting sales of $6.77 billion for the first quarter, according to a survey by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

That would be an increase of 1.4 percent from the $6.68 billion reported in the same period last year, but a 3.1 percent decrease from the $6.98 billion last quarter. 

Intel did not provide any earnings estimates. Analysts, however, are expecting a profit of 14 cents a share, down 12.5 percent from the 16 cents a share profit reported in the first quarter of 2001. 

Revenues typically fall as much as 10 percent in the quarter following the holiday. 

Intel may be feeling the lingering effects of stronger-than-expected computer buying during the holidays. Now PC makers are replenishing their supplies, according to some analysts. 

The company also is expected to reap rewards from new technologies that not only make its microprocessors faster and more competitive, but also less expensive to build. 

Earlier this week, Intel introduced processors for mobile computers based on its flagship Pentium 4 architecture. The company also recently unveiled a Pentium 4-based chip for servers. 

Shares of Intel gained 2 cents, to $32.98 in Thursday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. In extended trading, they lost 55 cents. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Intel Corp.: http://www.intel.com 

SAN FRANCISCO — Ailing credit card issuer Providian Financial Corp. on Thursday announced a deal to sell its Argentina operations to a group of Buenos Aires investors for an undisclosed sum. 

The San Francisco-based company put its Argentine business on the sales block in November as part of its survival efforts. 

As the economy soured last year, more of Providian’s customers defaulted on their loans, saddling the company with a fourth-quarter loss of $481.2 million. 

Providian, once the nation’s fifth-largest credit card issuer, previously sold 3.3 million of its lowest-risk accounts to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for $2.87 billion and sold 500,000 accounts in the United Kingdom to Barclays Bank for an undisclosed sum. 

The company’s shares fell 21 cents to close at $5.10 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

About 200 students walked out of Berkeley High School Wednesday afternoon and marched on to district headquarters protesting the move from a seven- to a six-period day beginning next fall. 

“We will not go quietly into the night, we will not give up without a fight,” chanted the students, who were met on the steps of district headquarters by Superintendent Michele Lawrence and her leadership team. 

“These decisions were made without our input,” said BHS senior Sean Dugar, one of the students who led the protest. “That is not OK.” 

Students raised concerns that the shift to a six-period day, approved by the Board of Education last week in a wave of $3.8 million in budget cuts, will harm the school’s successful double-period science class and lead to deep cuts in electives, including music, the arts and African-American studies courses.  

Some even said they were worried that the entire African-American studies department might be chopped. 

“You’re operating under a misunderstanding,” said Lawrence through a bullhorn, straining to be heard. “There is no intention, there was never an intention and I don’t believe there will be an accidental intention of in any way hurting the African-American Studies Department.” 

Lawrence said that there will be reductions in electives for the approximately 3,000 students including, quite possibly, African-American studies classes, as a result of the move to a six-period day. But she emphasized that reductions do not mean elimination. 

“There will have to be some reductions,” she said. “That doesn’t mean music is going to go away or African-American studies will go away.” 

After the protest Lawrence told the Daily Planet that the district will determine what reductions to make after meeting with administrators and department heads at the high school and evaluating which courses students choose to take next semester. Students will begin choosing classes in a couple of weeks. 

Lawrence said it was too early to determine which specific elective programs will face reductions and how steep those reductions will be. But, when asked about science in particular, she suggested that some double-period offerings will remain and some will not. 

Dana Johnson, a senior at BHS, said moving from double- to single-period science will harm the quality of the program and make it more difficult for students to get a handle on complex subjects. 

“Right now, I’m in advanced biology,” she said. “The class I’m in, if it’s one period, I won’t learn enough, and it’s going to be so much harder.” 

Johnson also raised concerns that cuts in African-American Studies classes will disproportionately effect African-American students. 

“Some African-American Studies classes are the only classes African-American students can take and pass, and not fall through the cracks,” she said. 

Dharini Rasiah, a video teacher who attended the protest, raised concerns about a reduction in arts classes. “I’m furious,” said Rasiah, who teaches five video classes. 

Rasiah said many of her students take video courses for two or three periods a day and are able to develop their skills and produce award-winning work. She worries that, with the shift to a six-period day, students will only be able to take one video class in their high school careers, reducing achievement. 

School board President Shirley Issel, who was at the protest, said the board has “a commitment to quality, academic excellence and our rich elective programs.” 

“They’ll be adjusted,” Issel said, of the elective courses, “but I don’t think they’ll be compromised.” 

Lawrence offered to meet with students in a more structured setting to answer their concerns about the six-period day. 

A furious third-quarter comeback wasn’t enough for the Berkeley Lady Yellowjackets as St. Ignatius (San Francisco) pulled off a 52-49 upset in a quarterfinal of the Northern California Section Division I playoffs. 

Berkeley forward Sabrina Keys was called for an intentional foul with seven seconds left in the game, and St. Ignatius seniors Katie Meinhardt and Maureen McCaffery each hit two free throws to give the Wildcats a three-point lead. Berkeley guard Angelita Hutton missed a half-court shot at the buzzer as the ’Jackets missed out on playing in the NorCal championship for the first time in nearly a decade. 

St. Ignatius survived Berkeley’s comeback from a 16-point deficit at halftime. Lauren Chambers hit two free throws, her only points of the game, to give the ’Jackets their first lead of the game at 45-44 with three-and-a-half minutes left in the game.  

The teams traded baskets twice, with Kalyca Seabrook getting a putback for a 49-48 Berkeley lead with 15 seconds left. Berkeley had three fouls to give before St. Ignatius would get to the free throw line, but Meinhardt got free under the basket, forcing Keys to foul her hard. The referee immediately called an intentional foul, giving the Wildcats two free throws and possession of the ball. Meinhardt hit her free throws, then McCaffery was fouled and made her shots with 5.1 seconds left. 

Berkeley came into the game as the second seed in Division I, while the Wildcats were unseeded despite winning the Central Coast Section title with a win over Archbishop Mitty. St. Ignatius didn’t even earn a first-round bye, having to beat Washington on Tuesday night just to get to Wednesday night’s game. 

“We knew we should have been seeded higher,” Meinhardt said. “We wanted to come in here and beat the team to beat and prove how good we are.” 

Meinhardt keyed the Wildcats’ strong first half, scoring 11 points with 4 steals in the second quarter alone. The Boston University-bound senior scored a game-high 24 points overall, and McCaffery, who will play at Harvard next season, helped out with 10. 

Berkeley committed 18 turnovers in the first half, allowing St. Ignatius to take more than twice as many shots before halftime. The ’Jackets struggled to solve the Wildcats’ zone defense and were unable to get Keys free inside, settling for jumpers and reckless drives.  

“We had an unbelievable number of unforced turnoversi n the first half that killed us,” Berkeley head coach Gene Nakamura said. “It wouldn’t have been that close of a game if we didn’t give them the ball so much.” 

The inside trio of McCaffery, Megan Niedermeyer and Kelsey Wegmann held Keys to 11 points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field. 

“We knew they’d come with a zone, but we were just standing around,” Nakamura said. “We started attacking in the second half, and that’s when we had success.” 

The Lady ’Jackets came out of halftime fired up, cranking up the defensive pressure. Angelita Hutton, Natasha Bailey and Shaquita Brown all hit 3-pointers during Berkeley’s 20-7 third quarter, cutting the Wildcat lead to three points at 36-33. Keys made her only field goal and was fouled, hitting the free throw to tie the game at 40-40 early in the fourth quarter. 

“We had a nice lead at halftime, but it disappeared before I could even think,” St. Ignatius head coach Jim Dekker said. “They started putting pressure on us, and they’ve got great athletes.” 

Berkeley, which lost the state championship game the last two seasons, will be home for the NorCal championship game for the first time since 1993, when they lost in the semifinals to Lincoln (San Francisco). 

St. Ignatius, with its wins over Mitty and Berkeley, has beaten the NorCal champs of the last five seasons.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Fueling the worst Hindu-Muslim violence in Indian in nearly a decade is a new Hindu nationalism that adopts the militaristic rhetoric of today's world leaders. PNS Associate Editor Sandip Roy fears that an older form of Hinduism that could accept, absorb and change other cultures is being lost. Roy (sandiproy@hotmail.com) is host of “Upfront” – the Pacific News Service weekly radio program on KALW-FM, San Francisco. 

By Sandip Roy 

Pacific News Service 

SAN FRANCISCO — When the bland bureaucratic form demands I write down my religion, I dutifully print HINDU. A religion I call my own with as little thought as I claim my parents – a given. 

Then the stories pour in of Hindu mobs barricading terrified Muslims in a schoolhouse in Gujarat and setting them ablaze. Of holy men with matted hair and saffron robes descending on the hot dusty town in Ayodhya with their iron tridents. They are Hindu, too – perhaps more Hindu than I. I look into the face of their Hinduism and realize I almost envy it, cloaked as it is in such certainty. My Hinduism, which is more about a culture than a temple, is civilized but effete in comparison – a cut flower in a crystal vase. 

Who is the real Hindu? What happened to my Hinduism? 

Much has been written about the rise of Hindu nationalism in India.  

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), once an outcast in Indian politics because of its Hindu chauvinism, is now in power. Not just in power, but presiding over a coalition with some of the very parties that not so long ago refused to associate with it, and caused the first BJP government in 1996 to fall in just 13 days. 

What does this mean? That India is finally declaring that the 1947 act of partition that created the Muslim state of Pakistan in effect created a Hindu state named India? That secularism was just a fig leaf plastered onto that Hindu state, and finally, inevitably, it is slipping off?  

That Hinduism is being reincarnated as a muscular nationalism hell-bent on settling scores from centuries ago? Against Muslim invaders, British traders. 

Dare I say it – Hinduism is becoming a certain kind of man, proclaiming a type of male certainty. Certainty – as in you have to be for us or against us. Certainty, as in smoking the enemy out of their caves. A single muscular line, like a missile that cannot be deflected from its purpose. 

Is this a Hinduism that Gandhi might have recognized? Gandhi, too, was Hindu. Gandhi was from Gujarat as well, where the communal riots now rage with unspeakable ferocity. But now he is a portrait on the wall of a bureaucrat, forever staring at the back of the bureaucrat’s head.  

When Time Magazine was choosing its man of the century, I was deluged by e-mails from Indians trying to make sure I went to Time’s Web site to vote for Gandhi. It was strange – their enthusiasm was no indicator of the resonance Gandhi had in their lives. He was merely our best bet at having an Indian named the person of the century – a commodity. 

Where is Gandhi now? Or Nelson Mandela? Or all the other leaders whose certainty was not a single-minded heat-seeking missile? Whose message was about looking into the eye of the opponent to see if they could see themselves in there.  

I don’t know if they could play any of the extreme sports our world leaders play now. After Sept. 11, the rhetoric has been so much more about nationalism, taking care of our own, closing doors, sealing borders, us vs. them, weeding out terrorists, “you can run but you can’t hide.” Bush, Putin, Arroyo, Sharon, Vajpayee – each a player more certain than the next of the destiny of the nation each leads. This new Hinduism is in tune with the world's rhetoric – black and white in its certainty, defining itself by how it can teach someone a lesson, show them who is boss. 

But there was another Hinduism that was about absorption. Absorbing conquerors, their music, their food, their poetry – and yes, their seed, their vices, their greed.  

That Hinduism is now derided as passive, unable to compete in the world. It cannot spearhead agitations or mobilize mob armies. But it still exists – not necessarily in secularists like me.  

Up in Marin County (yes, where else?), I met a master Indian musician, the sarode player Ali Akbar Khan. Now 80 years old, his name immediately reveals his Muslim parentage. Yet his sister is named Annapurna, a Hindu mother goddess. Now Khan teaches Indian classical raagas with mellifluous names like “Purbasree” in San Rafael, in a room whose window has the stained glass image of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of the arts and learning. 

I wanted to ask him if he was Hindu or Muslim. He said he was a musician – music to him was next to God. In some strange, romantic way, I felt more in touch with my Hinduism that night than I had in a long time.

Thursday, March 7

Ancient Cultures of the Indian Himalaya 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Slide presentation by Barbara Sansone through the Kinnaur and Spiti Valley in eastern Himachul Pradesh. 527-4140. 

Resisting the Occupation: Jewish Peace Activists in Israel and Palestine 

7 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Seth Schneider and Jerry Geffner were part of a recent American Jewish delegation that removed roadblocks, planted olive trees, monitored checkpoints, and met with Israeli and Palestinian peace organizations. Join them as they share slides and stories from their December trip. $5-10 sliding scale, proceeds benefit Rafah refugees. 301-0842, seth_schneider@yahoo.com. 

Sequencing the Human Genome: Eukaryotes 

4:10 p.m. 

International House Auditorium  

2299 Piedmont Ave. 

Public lecture by Dr. J. Craig Venter, chairman of the board for the Institute for Genomic Research. 643-7413, www.grad.berkeley.edu/lectures. 

Friday, March 8

International Women’s Day 

1 - 2:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Music, history, and speakers.  

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Celebrating International Women’s Day 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Theatre  

2640 College Ave. 

International Women’s Day celebration with Suheir Hammad, poet and author of “First Writing Since” and “Born Palestinian, Born Black.” This event is presented by the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association and Women of Color Resource Center. All are welcome to both the reception at 6 p.m. and the program at 7 p.m. $10 - $30, sliding scale. 845-8542, www.coloredgirls.org. 

Berkeley Critical Mass Ninth Birthday Ride 

5:30 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART 

Roll through the streets with glee to celebrate the ninth birthday of the monthly Berkeley Critical Mass ride. Party follows. http://www.bclu.org/couch/. 

Men Considering Serving in the  

Roman Catholic church as a  

priest or brother 

9 p.m. 

Precious Blood Mission House  

2800 Milvia 

An evening of dialogue and discernment for men who are considering serving in the Roman Catholic church as a priest or brother. RSVP to Rev. Gary M. Luiz, 848-1053. 

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Mary Breunig, president, Landmark Heritage Foundation; “The Julian Morgan Building, the Berkeley City Club, and the Landmark Heritage Foundation.” $1. 848-3533. 

Saturday, March 9

Burma Human Rights Day 

6 - 10 p.m. 

Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship Hall 

1924 Cedar 

Benefit for women’s groups on the Thailand/Burma border. Burmese cuisine 6 - 7 p.m.; Min Zin, featured speaker, 7 - 8 p.m.; “Sacrifice,” feature film, 8 - 9 p.m.; $10-$20 sliding scale. 841-4824, www.badasf.org. 

Restore Hetch Hetchy 

5 p.m. 

MountainLight Gallery 

1466 66th St., Emeryville 

A short presentation describing the effort to obtain a “win-win” outcome for Yosemite National Park’s Hetch Hetchy Valley and the Bay Area’s water and power users. 209-372-8660, www.mountainlight.com/. 

Train for the Eco-Challenge 

2 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Liz Caldwell and Barry Siff, veteran members of Team REI-Salomon, with a slide presentation on their recent Eco-Challenge events in New Zealand and Borneo. They will discuss how to train for a competition, select team members and prevent injury. 527-4140. 

Sunday, March 10

Oakland Civic Orchestra’s 

Children’s Concert 

3 p.m. 

Oakland Veteran’s Memorial Building 

200 Grand Ave., Oakland 

A concert for children of all ages. There will be a raffle and young members from the audience will have a chance to conduct the orchestra. Free. 251-8362. 

Storytelling Women 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Live Oak Center, Social Hall 

1301 Shattuck Ave. 

Women tellers telling about women who inspire their lives. Four storytellers and a musician. Part of the annual women’s and girls’ tea party and storytelling ceremony held in Codornices Park. $30 suggested. 841-6612. 

The Labor Movement, Democracy and the Political Vacuum 

noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

411 28th St., Oakland 

Presentation by Steve Zeltzer. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Tibetan Art: Entering  

the Realm of the Sacred 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Sylvia Gretchen, Dean of Nyingma Studies, will uses examples of Tibetan art to explore the meaning of “sacred.” 843-6812. 

Monday, March 11

The Science Behind Global Warming, and How You Can Reduce Your Impact 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

University Ave. and Bonar St. 

Susan Ode, Berkeley Energy Commission, will provide an update on the science and implications of global warming for the world, plus a practical list of actions you can incorporate in your life to protect the global climate and improve the quality of your life. 981-5435, energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Odyssey of Conflict and Odyssey of Mastery – Polanyi, Pirsig, Zen, and the Art of Knowing 

3:30 - 5 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion, Mudd 206 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Lecture and discussion presented by Allen Dyer, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at East Tennessee State University, also former chair of the ethics committee of the American Psychiatric Association. Free and open to the public. 849-8285. 

Learning from The History of Government 

noon 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Positive Political Theory Seminar with Roger Myerson, University of Chicago. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/. 

Conscientious Objection to War 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Friends’ Meetinghouse 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends will view the PBS documentary, The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It, and discuss it.  

Meet the Artists of the  

ARTS Ed Resource Guide 

6 - 8 p.m. 

James Irvine Foundation Conference Center 

353 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 

Artists and arts organizations will deliver brief presentation about their program offerings and address questions posed by the audience. Free and open to the public. 208-0842, www.artsedeastbay.org. 

Tuesday, March 12

An Evening with Numfundo Walaza:  

The Burden of Forgiveness 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

An evening with Numfundo Walaza, director of the Trauma Center for Survivors of Violence and Torture in Capetown, South Africa. Walaza will talk about “The Burden of Forgiveness: Reflections from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of South Africa.” $15. 204-0720, mkmorrison@cdsp.edu. 

Wednesday, March 13

Trees Forum 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

Amahra Hicks of USFS, and Jeff Romm of UCB discuss “Just Forests Initiative: Faith-based Activism for Public Land.” Free and open to the public. www.gtu.edu/StudServ/TREES. 

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Lawrence Saez, professor of East Asia Studies, UC Berkeley; “South Asia: Focus on India.” $5. 848-3533. 

Jacki Fox Ruby, a California Federation of Teachers official, soundly defeated incumbent Jerome Wiggins Tuesday in the race for Alameda County Board of Education Trustee Area 1, bringing an end to an often nasty campaign. 

Ruby, a former Berkeley school teacher, won 58 percent of the vote while Wiggins took 42 percent, according to county figures released Wednesday. The new board member will represent Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, Piedmont and portions of Oakland. 

“Yeah for the schools and the kids,” said Ruby on election night. 

Ruby said she will work to bring together all the local school districts under the jurisdiction of the Alameda County Office of Education, and craft regional responses to educational problems. 

She added that she will attempt to boost county support services to each of the districts, including violence prevention programs, fiscal assistance and teacher training. 

Wiggins blamed his defeat on heavy spending by the Ruby campaign, which raised $30,000, and opposition from County Superintendent Sheila Jordan, who contributed $10,000 of her own campaign money to the Ruby operation. 

“I thought it was going to be an uphill battle against the Sheila Jordan machine,” said Wiggins. 

“I’m not sure what that means,” Jordan responded. “I’ve never been called a machine before.” 

Wiggins raised particular concern about a mailer, shipped out by Jordan in the closing days of the campaign, which accused him of threatening the superintendent, fellow board members and Ruby supporters. 

“That was the most vicious hit piece that I have ever seen anyone put out,” Wiggins said. 

The piece quotes Wiggins e-mails telling the superintendent to stay out of Area 1, and accusing a fellow board member of “unethical, racist and despicable” conduct. 

The mailer also alleges that Wiggins called the associate superintendent at one point and said: “I’ll make an appointment to see Sheila Jordan and go home and get my baseball bat and no one will have computers.” 

“I never said that to him,” replied Wiggins, who argues that the piece is libelous, and warns that he will sue the superintendent. 

Much of the race centered on Wiggins’ stormy relationship with Jordan. The two clashed publicly last summer over the county’s $30 million budget. 

Jordan called for an increase in staff salaries, and for expanded support services for the various school districts under the jurisdiction of the county office. 

Wiggins and the board majority countered that Jordan’s proposals would come at the expense of students in programs run directly by the county, including the county juvenile hall and a series of community day schools serving young people expelled by the local districts. 

Eventually, the two sides reached a compromise. But the friction between Jordan and Wiggins remained. Jordan said Ruby’s election would restore civility to the county office. 

“This enables me, as superintendent, to focus on my job,” said Jordan. 

The county board approves the county budget, serves as an appeals board for students expelled by individual districts in the county and oversees county-run education programs, among other things.

The St. Mary’s boys basketball team found their rhythm shortly before halftime, cruising to an eventual 74-58 victory over Oak Grove (San Jose) and moved one step closer to a CIF Northern Section crown. 

A sluggish Panther team struggled in the raucous Oak Grove gym in the early going, and it appeared likely that the Panthers had made a grave mistake by overlooking the Eagles (28-2 in the regular season), anticipating a potential Saturday rematch against Oakland Tech, which defeated the Panthers early in the season. 

“All our preparation has been to play on Saturday against Oakland Tech,” St. Mary’s coach Jose Caraballo said. 

But the first 14 minutes of Wednesday’s game were all Eagles. Leading 23-22 midway through the second quarter, they lit up the home crowd with three consecutive baskets: a powerful one-handed dunk by John Williams, followed by a 15-foot jumper by Williams - and then, impossibly, an alley-oop pass by guard Gerald Green that missed his intended target completely – and fell instead into the hoop for a 3-pointer and a 30-22 Eagle lead. 

“We were a little dead in the first half,” St. Mary’s center Simon Knight said. “Then we started picking up in spurts. We decided we needed to come out with heart, come out running. That’s what we did – we just took it to ‘em.” 

The first of those spurts came to close the first half, as the Panthers went on an eight-point run in the final minute and a half of the second period to draw within one, 33-32. 

Senior guard John Sharper then took over during the third quarter, scoring 10 of his game-high 18 points, and the Panthers pulled away to a 52-42 lead heading into the final period. The Eagles would pull to within three points with 4:29 to play in the game, but an 11-point Panther run sealed the victory.

Right now, it is an empty section of railroad track blocked off on both sides by a cyclone fence. It used to be a hang-out for prostitutes and rowdy drinkers until the city erected these fences at Berkeley Way and University Avenue about 10 years ago. Now many groups in the city want to make it part of a landscaped pedestrian and bicycle corridor. 

But neighbors along the Old Santa Fe Right of Way don’t want the bad old days to come back.  

At a 7 p.m. meeting tonight at Liz Fogerty’s house at 1301 Berkeley Way, they hope to voice their concerns to city officials and talk to the police department about crime.  

Elena Nanapoulos, who has been active in the Berkeley Way Neighbors’ Group, said those who live closest to the proposed park have felt left out of the planning process. While the city has been working on the park idea since last summer, neighbors only got a chance to talk at a stakeholders’ meeting called by Councilmember Linda Maio on Feb. 11. 

“The issue is that while we’re in favor of green space – we’ve asked for it for years because it’s a fairly unattractive space – we’re worried about crime,” said Nanapoulos. 

The neighbors are happy that respected organizations like the Berkeley Montessori School and the Temple Nevitot Shalom will be making the neighborhood their home, but worried about what might happen to the open space at night. 

“We’ve heard from police that the drug traffic nowadays is not stationary and not just on street corners. It happens on bikes,” said Carol Sullivan, also active in the neighborhood group. A sunny family-friendly bike path could become an after-hours super highway for drugs, she said. 

Dave Campbell of the Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition said that his group is trying to be sensitive to the neighbors’ concerns. 

“I told the neighbors at the meeting that their concerns for safety are bigger than our concerns for a bike path,” he said. “We’re not going to ram a bike path down their throats if they don’t want it.” 

A gate could solve the problem. Putting in the fence in mid-1980s ended the “uncivilized behavior,” said Filmer. 

“I never thought I’d have the desire to have an ugly, tall fence in my surrounds, but it really improved the quality of the neighborhood,” she said.  

A gate that could be opened in the morning and closed at night by beat cops would give them both green space and safety, she said. 

Maio said she hopes all the groups can talk through their differences at tonight’s meeting because it seems everyone wants a green space, in theory. Then they can have another meeting to discuss the specifics of the development.  

Steven Swanson, president of the Berkeley Partners for Parks, the group that has spearheaded the effort, said it is about time.  

“Berkeley has been tardy with the greenway thing for a long time,” said Swanson. 

Now that the city has a large grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, his group’s vision of a grassy trail that fuses pedestrian and bike paths with community gardens or maybe a putting green can become a reality. 

“Our view on it is that an abandoned Right of Way doesn’t do anyone any good,” said Swanson. “A greenway tends to improve a neighborhood and there will be a lot of legitimate users, especially pedestrian activity. This is a self-policing mechanism.” 

The greenway would also join currently isolated parks that have been created along the Right of Way, as well as connect South Berkeley to Albany and El Cerrito.  

The city recognizes the people’s desire for more green space, said Maio. She said the park is at the top of the staff’s list of possible ways to use the HIP grant and high on her list of priorities, as well. 

“I’ve been wanting to improve the Right of Way since I was elected, but there was no money to do it,” said Maio, who has worked on the Santa Fe Right of Way project for the last two months. 

“Given the economy, I don’t think we’ll come across these kinds of funds again. I don’t want to miss the opportunity.” 

A staff working group has been considering the project since the city was awarded the $1 million HIP grant in July 2001. The money is given for transportation projects based on how much housing a city plans to build.  

Dave Fogerty in the city’s Office of Economic Development said $1 million would buy the city a pedestrian crossing at University Avenue, and a bike path to the Delaware Bike Boulevard that could connect to the BART station. 

Although Fogerty could not divulge the staff recommendation that will be presented to the City Council in April, he did say the Santa Fe greenway was very favorably viewed.

A 36-year-old Oakland man was struck and killed by an eastbound local freight train early Wednesday morning. At 3:27 a.m. the train hit Kevin Raney, who was apparently lying on the tracks a quarter-mile north of Gilman Street, according to Charles Brewer, an investigator at the Alameda County Coroner’s Office.  

Lena Kent, spokesperson for the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, said the man was lying on the tracks in a section that was not at a road crossing.  

The train, running on tracks owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, was going 28 miles per hour, well below the speed limit. It was a Richmond-to-Richmond train that goes back and forth servicing local industries. The crew involved in the incident have been given several days off for trauma relief. 

The coroner’s office is still looking into the cause of the man’s death.  

It is too early to tell whether it was an accident or suicide. 

Union Pacific Director of Public Affairs John Bromley said the train crew called Union Pacific’s central dispatch in Omaha, Neb. at 3:28 a.m. saying the man appeared dead. The company’s railroad police arrived at 4:01 a.m. and notified the Berkeley Police Department, who sent an emergency crew. Brewer said the man was dead when he arrived at the scene at 4:30 a.m. 

John Bromley, director of public affairs for Union Pacific, said accidents like this happen every day on railroads across the country. Every year, there are 500 trespassing fatalities, he said. 

“It happens a lot in California in general, but especially in the Bay Area, we have a lot of problems with trespassers,” said Bromley. 

BPD Capt. Bobby Miller confirmed there was an accident near the Albany-Berkeley line, but he said the local police were only marginally involved. The railroad tracks are not in the BPD’s jurisdiction so the department simply assists the railroad police at the scene and allows the company to do its own investigation.  

Accidents like this are difficult to prevent, said Bromley. Even if the company puts up fences along the tracks, people can always get in at railroad crossings. Trespassing is an even worse problem in urban areas, he said. 

“We have a zero trespassers policy,” said Bromley. “We remove them because it’s a safety issue as well as a property theft and vandalism issue.”

Today is Thursday, March 7, the 66th day of 2002. There are 299 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for his telephone. 

On this date: 

In 1850, in a three-hour speech to the U.S. Senate, Daniel Webster endorsed the Compromise of 1850 as a means of preserving the Union. 

In 1911, the United States sent 20,000 troops to the Mexican border as a precaution in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. 

In 1926, the first successful transatlantic radio-telephone conversation took place, between New York and London. 

In 1936, Adolf Hitler ordered his troops to march into the Rhineland, thereby breaking the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact. 

In 1945, during World War II, U.S. forces crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany, using the damaged but still usable Ludendorff Bridge. 

In 1965, a march by civil rights demonstrators was broken up in Selma, Ala., by state troopers and a sheriff’s posse. 

In 1975, the Senate revised its filibuster rule, allowing 60 senators to limit debate in most cases, instead of the previously required two-thirds of senators present. 

In 1981, anti-government guerrillas in Colombia executed kidnapped American Bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman, whom they accused of being a CIA agent. 

In 1994, the Supreme Court ruled that parodies that poke fun at an original work can be considered “fair use” that doesn’t require permission from the copyright holder. 

In 1999, movie director Stanley Kubrick died in Hertfordshire, England, at age 70. 

Ten years ago: Democrat Bill Clinton picked up additional victories in the South Carolina primary and the Wyoming caucuses, while fellow Democrat Paul Tsongas won the Arizona caucuses. President George H.W. Bush won the Republican primary in South Carolina. 

Five years ago: After a week of embarrassing disclosures about White House fund raising, President Clinton told a news conference, “I’m not sure, frankly,” whether he’d also made calls for campaign cash. But he insisted that nothing had undercut his pledge to have the highest ethical standards ever. 

One year ago: Ariel Sharon was sworn in as Israel’s prime minister. 

Today’s Birthdays: Photographer Lord Snowdon is 72. TV weatherman Willard Scott is 68. Auto racer Janet Guthrie is 64. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 62. Walt Disney Co. chairman Michael Eisner is 60. Rock musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 59. Actor John Heard is 56. Rock singer Peter Wolf is 56. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 56. Singer Peggy March is 54. Football Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris is 52. Football Hall-of-Famer Lynn Swann is 50. Rhythm-and-blues singer-musician Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 50. Actor Bryan Cranston (“Malcolm in the Middle”) is 46. Tennis Hall-of-Famer Ivan Lendl is 42. Actor Bill Brochtrup (“NYPD Blue”) is 39. Singer-actress Taylor Dayne is 37. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket) is 35. Actress Rachel Weisz is 31. Rock singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 28.  

Actress Laura Prepon (“That 70’s Show”) is 22.

SAN FRANCISCO — Democrats from Santa Cruz and San Francisco are set to become the first openly gay men in the California Legislature, joining three uncloseted lesbians in pushing an agenda that includes giving same-sex couples the same protections as married straight people. 

But state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, a lesbian from Santa Monica, predicts hostility from some lawmakers “because there’s more prejudice toward gay men from straight, homophobic men than there is toward lesbians.” 

Former Santa Cruz Mayor John Laird ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for the seat of Assemblyman Fred Keeley, D-Boulder Creek, who is being forced out by term limits. Laird will face Republican Chuck Carter, a Monterey real estate agent, this fall in what is considered a safe Democratic seat. 

In San Francisco, another openly gay man was expected to take an Assembly seat. 

The Democratic primary race was too close to call between city Supervisor Mark Leno and former board of supervisors president Harry Britt, both of whom are gay. They were seeking an Assembly seat being vacated by Carole Migden, a lesbian, in a safe Democratic district. 

There currently are four women in the Legislature who are public about being lesbians, though Migden will be pushed out by term limits. Leno or Britt will try to keep that seat gay. 

“When a gay person is at the table on the Assembly floor, the dynamic of debate changes immediately,” Leno said, “just by the fact of our presence.” 

Britt was appointed to Harvey Milk’s seat in 1979 after the city’s first gay supervisor was assassinated at City Hall. 

The incumbent lesbians have been pushing the gay agenda in Sacramento, but it hasn’t been easy. In 2001, Gov. Gray Davis signed a measure allowing domestic partners who register with the state to make medical decisions for their incapacitated partners, sue for wrongful death, adopt a partner’s child and will property to a partner. 

But the legislation falls short of recognizing same-sex unions that would allow couples to enjoy the same protections as married straight people. 

“It took me six years to get through a bill just to protect students against harassment at school, and it only barely passed,” said Kuehl, a Democrat and the first open lesbian elected to the Legislature. “It is so hostile and insulting, and it’s all from the Republicans, really.” 

The other two open lesbians currently in the Legislature are Assemblywomen Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, and Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego. 

Rev. Lou Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, said the election of an openly gay man to the state Legislature could be negated if Republican Bill Simon wins the gubernatorial race, but still would be a concern to his group. 

“The rub is that the homosexual agenda thinks it’s the only agenda in town,” Sheldon said. He pointed out that Californians voted against a same-sex marriage initiative in the past and that gay politicians from San Francisco may be out of step with the rest of the state. 

“It’s San Francisco that needs to awaken that they are pushing against the will of the people,” Sheldon said. 

Although only two gay candidates have a shot at winning legislative seats in the general election in November, gay rights advocates were pleased that other such candidates were on the ballot Tuesday. 

Holli Thier was on the San Francisco ticket, and Gregory Pettis lost in the district covering Imperial County as well as the Riverside County cities of Blythe, Indio, Palm Desert, Palm Springs and Cathedral City. 

“I’m not used to having to be at so many places at once for gay candidates on Election Night,” said Jean Harris, executive director of the California Alliance for Pride and Equality. “If civil unions is passed in California, it’s going to sweep across the country. They’re interested in taking this role, and they really want to be a part of making history.” 

The Daily Planet inaccurately reported in its March 5 article, “City settles with UC for less than expected” that Councilmember Linda Maio made a motion to sue UC Berkeley over the Northeast Quadrant program. It was Councilmember Dona Spring who made the motion.

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Wednesday to require any pipeline that would carry natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope to pass along a southern route through Alaska instead of an alternative route mainly through Canada. 

The proposal, part of a sweeping energy bill expected to be debated for at least a week, also would provide $10 billion in loan guarantees in an attempt to spur construction of the pipeline. 

Although lawmakers have called an Alaska natural gas pipeline key to meeting the nation’s energy needs, there has been no rush by industry to begin construction at current, relatively low, gas prices. 

One industry report concluded that the pipeline, which would cost $15 billion to $20 billion to build, was not economical. 

Still, the energy bill seeks to provide incentive for building the line. Alaska’s Republican Sens. Frank Murkowski and Ted Stevens wanted to make certain if it is built it takes the southern route through Alaska. A consortium has proposed taking the line under the Beaufort Sea and south across Canada through the Mackenzie Delta, contending that route is cheaper and would bring more Canadian gas into the lower 48 states. 

After a call from Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle offered an amendment directing the southern route. Murkowski added provisions that would assure Alaska’s industry would have access to some of the gas should the line be built. 

The provision was approved 93-5. 

“If this gas goes east (along the northern route) Alaskans will never enjoy a single benefit,” said Stevens. “I told the industry that line will go east over my dead body, and I’m not quite ready to leave this world.” 

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said the government needs to act to persuade industry to build the pipeline so that the vast gas reserves along the North Slope can be brought south. Energy experts predict U.S. demand for natural gas will grow 40 percent over the next two decades. 

The gas line, which would take seven years to build and produce tens of thousands of jobs, also has been used to counter those who argue that jobs are key in opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. 

In addition to the loan guarantees, Daschle also has proposed that the government provide tax credits on the Alaska gas if the price falls below a certain level. 

A number of Western GOP senators from gas-producing states have balked at such subsidies, arguing it would put gas producers in the lower 48 states at a disadvantage. The tax subsidies were expected to be taken up later when senators consider energy tax issues. 

Sen. Don Nickels, R-Okla., voted against restricting the route and said he also questioned the $10 billion in proposed loan guarantees.  

He said neither provision had been studied adequately. 

A House-passed energy bill has a similar provision requiring the southern route, which would take the line along the path of the existing oil pipeline, then along the Alaska Highway and into Canada, and finally into the lower 48 states. 

——— 

On the Net: 

North Slope page from Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory: 

http://www.inel.gov/energy/fossil/environ/northslope-util-study.shtm l 

SAN JOSE — A small plane with three people aboard spun out of control and crashed into a canyon Wednesday, landing upside down. 

Police said they did not have any information about the fate of the plane’s occupants. 

The Cessna 425 left Reid-Hillview airport around 10:20 a.m. and was heading for La Paz, Mexico, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus. 

Because of the rough terrain that surrounded the crash site, it took more than an hour for emergency rescue teams to reach the plane. The plane crashed around 10:35 a.m. in an unincorporated part of San Jose near Cinnabar Hills Golf Course, according to San Jose Police spokeswoman Jessica Mullen. 

Cinnabar employee Steve Dennis saw the crash, saying the plane “made two flat spins and then went straight down.” 

A KCBS traffic plane that flew above the wreckage saw smoke coming from the plane and no signs of survivors. 

RENO, Nev. — It was slow going over the Sierra Nevada range Wednesday as a wet Pacific storm brought heavy snow to the Lake Tahoe region. 

Chains were mandatory Wednesday afternoon on Interstate 80 over Donner Summit and U.S. 50 over Echo Summit. 

Travel restrictions were also in place for most other trans-Sierra roadways, including the Mount Rose Highway southwest of Reno and State Routes 88 and 267 in California. 

Forecasters said the latest storm is the first in a series poised to move into the area in the coming week and follows two months of unseasonably dry, warm weather. 

A winter storm warning remained in effect through Thursday for the Lake Tahoe region, where forecasters predicted 2-3 feet of snow could fall at the higher elevations. 

A winter storm watch for Thursday was issued for the foothill areas above 5,000 feet. 

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators on Wednesday approved the proposed $22 billion merger of Hewlett-Packard Co. and Compaq Computer Corp., a deal that would be the biggest in high-tech history. 

Announcing the decision, the Federal Trade Commission said it voted to close its antitrust investigation of the proposed deal. The 5-0 commission vote requires no additional action from the companies to meet antitrust requirements. 

The merger still faces a tough shareholder vote, with Hewlett and Packard family interests opposing it. 

The FTC “conducted an extensive investigation of the merger’s effect on competition in markets for personal computers, servers and microprocessors, among other products,” the agency said. “The commission did not find reason to believe that the proposed transaction would impair competition in any relevant market.” 

HP Chairwoman and Chief Executive Carly Fiorina said the FTC decision “validates our conviction from the outset that the merger can only enhance competition throughout our markets.” 

“We are now focused on winning the shareowner vote,” she said. 

A Compaq spokesman did not immediately return calls seeking comment. 

HP shareholders are scheduled to vote on March 19 and Compaq shareholders are to vote the next day. 

HP, based in Palo Alto, Calif., and Compaq, based in Houston, believe merging will improve the economics of their struggling personal computer divisions and generate $2.5 billion in annual savings. The deal also would make them dominant in several growing technology markets, especially corporate computing and high-tech services. 

European and Canadian antitrust officials also have approved the merger. 

On Tuesday, Institutional Shareholder Services, an influential research firm based in Rockville, Md., said HP’s acquisition of Compaq could be an excellent long-term move despite its sizable risks. 

But Hewlett and Packard family interests oppose the merger. 

Walter Hewlett and other opponents worry that absorbing Compaq into HP would be a difficult and distracting process, and that Compaq would dramatically increase HP’s exposure to the slumping PC business at the expense of the profitable printing and digital imaging division. 

HP and Walter Hewlett have been locked for months in a bruising, political-style campaign for shareholder support, and it is expected to only intensify as the vote gets closer. 

In a statement Wednesday, Hewlett said, “We all know that regulators vociferously express concern when there is even a whiff of competitive advantage in a merger.” 

“We believe that HP stockholders should be concerned when competitors like Sun, Dell and IBM don’t object to a transaction that is supposed to add value to HP,” he said. 

More than 20 percent of HP shares, including those held by the Hewlett and Packard families, are lined up against the acquisition. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Pro-merger: http://www.votethehpway.com 

Anti-merger: http://www.votenohpcompaq.com 

Shares of ImClone Systems Inc. surged more than 23 percent Wednesday on news the biotech company has settled its public feud with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. over the handling of a $2 billion deal to co-market a highly touted experimental cancer drug. 

ImClone agreed Tuesday to accept less money and revise its profit-sharing agreement with the drug titan, which was also given management of a key committee assigned to shepherd the drug Erbitux through the regulatory process. 

ImClone agreed to accept $100 million less than the $800 million the drug titan owed the small New York-based biotechnology company to share Erbitux’s future profits once approved by the Food and Drug Administration. 

Bristol, also based in New York, agreed in September to pay $1 billion for a 19.9 percent stake in the company, plus a $200 million signing bonus. It also promised another $300 million when the FDA accepted the drug’s application and an additional $500 million once the agency approved it to treat colorectal cancer. 

Now, Bristol will pay ImClone $140 million once the new agreement is signed and another $60 million on the signing’s year anniversary. Bristol also agreed to pay the $500 million, but in two installments. 

ImClone also agreed to give Bristol 61 percent of North American Erbitux sales. 

“We are confident that we will now be able to move forward in our partnership with ImClone Systems for the development of Erbitux,” said Peter R. Dolan, chairman and chief executive officer, Bristol-Myers Squibb. 

A month ago, Bristol was threatening to walk away from the deal after ImClone was rocked by waves of bad news over its handling of the FDA application. On Dec. 28 the FDA deemed ImClone’s application incomplete and refused to even review it. 

The rejection was followed by at least two dozen class action suits filed by angry shareholders that accused ImClone of misleading them about the drug’s chances for FDA approval this year.  

Three separate federal investigations were launched and ImClone’s stock price tumbled from as high as $73.83 a share in December to as low as $14.87 a share last month. 

The companies announced the agreement after the close of the markets Tuesday. In trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, ImClone stock rose $4.81 to close at $28.63. Bristol shares rose $1.79, or 3.7 percent, to close at $50.22 on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Bristol has already written off $735 million of its ImClone investment. 

On Feb. 26, things began turning around for the estranged couple after they met with the FDA. After the meeting, ImClone said the FDA may allow it to use data from a European trial conducted by another marketing partner to support efforts to gain approval of its star drug. Investors had feared the FDA would require ImClone to begin a new trial for the drug that has received high praise from a number of doctors and patient advocates. 

Erbitux has been widely hailed as a major advance in the fight against cancer because it targets diseased cells while leaving healthy ones alone. Doctors believe it could be useful in fighting several types of cancer. 

Erbitux was given a priority review at the FDA, a fast track reserved for breakthrough therapies. 

“To have these issues resolved is great news for both companies and cancer patients,” said Jim McCamant, an analyst with Moors & Cabot. McCamant and other analysts estimate Erbitux could ring up more than $1 billion in annual sales a few years after it’s approved. 

“The key now is how quickly it will get approved,” McCamant said. 

Analysts said Erbitux’s launch probably would be delayed until 2004 if the European trial data is used. If another trial is required, Erbitux probably would not hit the market until at least 2005. 

Part of the revised agreement calls for Bristol senior vice president Andrew Bodnar to oversee a joint ImClone and Bristol team tasked with “implementing a single clinical and regulatory plan for Erbitux,” according to a joint statement. 

——— 

On the Net: 

ImClone: http://www.imclone.com 

Bristol: http://www.bms.com 

FDA: http://www.fda.gov 

SAN FRANCISCO — California power regulators again have delayed a vote on a pair of proposals that either would end electricity competition in the state or only allow businesses with deals already in place to continue buying from an energy seller other than their local utility. 

Should the state Public Utilities Commission choose to end competition — more than a year after lawmakers first ordered it to — it effectively would conclude the state’s flawed effort to deregulate its electricity markets. 

Lawmakers had predicted in 1996 that deregulation would encourage competition between traditional utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and energy sellers such as Commonwealth Energy and Enron Corp. 

Instead, a rate freeze kept utilities from collecting the full amount of soaring energy costs from customers, driving the state’s largest utility, PG&E, into bankruptcy. Rolling blackouts darkened the state, and Californians now pay among the highest electric rates in the country. 

When prices went up last summer, thousands of businesses flocked to buy cheaper electricity from utility competitors. As of October, more than 81,000 Californians — mostly large businesses — bought electricity from a competing seller, according to the PUC. 

Some, including the California State University system and the San Francisco Giants, have saved thousands, even millions of dollars, as a result. 

But the state bought enough energy to supply them as well. Many lawmakers and consumer advocates say those businesses must buy from the state’s pool of power to avoid foisting the entire cost onto residential and small business customers. 

PUC spokeswoman Terrie Prosper said Commissioner Carl Wood — who favors retroactively barring competition back to July 2001, voiding thousands of contracts in the process — delayed Wednesday’s scheduled vote until March 21 to analyze Commissioner Jeff Brown’s alternate proposal. 

Wood’s proposal would prevent current customers from renewing their contracts when they expire, which energy sellers say will drive them from California.  

Brown’s plan would allow current contracts to continue, but charge customers an “exit fee” to help the state pay its $10 billion power-buying debt. 

Backers of consumer choice have rallied behind Brown’s proposal, and said Wednesday they think Wood hopes to gain support from Michael R. Peevey, a former Southern California Edison president whom Gov. Gray Davis has appointed to the commission. 

Had the vote gone forward with GOP-appointed Commissioner Richard Bilas still present, a majority of the PUC appeared likely to support Brown’s proposal, which would let customers such as the University of California and McDonald’s continue buying electricity from utility competitors, said Dan Douglass, legal counsel for the Alliance for Retail Energy Markets. 

That flies in the face of lawmakers, who last February ordered state regulators to end consumer choice. California has spent billions buying electricity for the customers of PG&E and two other utilities, and lawmakers wanted to ensure all customers helped pay that debt. 

The PUC already has blocked businesses and residents from making any new energy buying arrangements after September 2001. 

Wednesday was the last meeting for outgoing Commissioner Bilas, a strong advocate of deregulation who is leaving the commission to care for his ailing wife and because of policy frustrations. 

He said the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 “profoundly affected him.” 

“It is with regret that I leave but I think there comes a time in every person’s life where you have to look around you and see what it is that you have,” Bilas said with tears in his eyes. 

“I walked around the house, looked at what I had, walked around my property saw how beautiful it was. Looked at my wife of 45 years and discovered how beautiful she was, is. And from that time on I was saying to myself daily, I’ve got to leave.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.cpuc.ca.gov 

At 1:00 a.m. the folks down at Loni Hancock for Assembly Headquarters were not only claiming victory — winning more than 50 percent of the preliminary returns in the 14th district assembly race — but were referring to it as a landslide victory. 

“I think it was Margaret Mead that said a small group of committed people can change the world,” Hancock said in a preliminary victory speech. 

‘Our numbers aren’t that small but we change history tonight. This district will continue to be a district that is out in front,” she added, referring to keeping the district a progressive stronghold of the Democratic party. 

Councilmember Betty Olds, a moderate, in some ways echoed Hancock’s perception of victory.  

She stated that who won last night — whether it was Hancock or Charles Ramsey or Dave Brown being a possible for spoiler for either of the two — would indicate whether the district would remain progressive or turn more moderate. Olds stated that though many of the electorate in Berkeley has remained the same for years that the unknown votes in the district which include Richmond, Lafayette and Orinda were key in the race.  

Olds also stated that some pundits were predicting that the district may go more progressive with the change in demographics but that Hancock’s victory may have proven that to be incorrect. 

“This assembly race will indicate whether this area will hold onto to its leftist roots,” Olds said. “I would think it would, but then you have Lafayette and Orinda thrown into it.” 

Olds stated that perhaps the returns in this race indicated that instead of the area becoming more progressive as many had predicted it may in fact simply becoming more of broadly democratic as newer, younger families move into areas such as Lafayette and Orinda which have traditionally been the largest republican bases in the district. 

Hancock, a former Berkeley Mayor, and long-standing member of the local progressive party was all smiles last night, thrilled with the numbers as they rolled in.  

The last reporting at 1:27 a.m. with 100 percent votes counted the race for the Democratic state Assembly race for the 14TH district indicated that Hancock received 16,652 votes (64.8 percent), Charles Ramsey came in second place receiving 6,228 votes (24.2 percent) and Dave Brown had taken in only 2,797 (10.8 percent).  

But at the time there had been no concession phone call from her closest competitor, the El Cerrito attorney and former West Contra Costa School Board member Charles Ramsey.  

Ramsey was unreachable by telephone last night.  

Hancock’s campaign did, however receive calls from Dave Brown and the speaker of the state Assembly Herb Wesson congratulating her on the victory. 

On hand at Hancock’s headquarters were several members of Berkeley City Council including Linda Maio, Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington — all of which worked very aggressively for the campaign. 

Also on hand was outgoing state Assembly member Dion Aroner, D- Berkeley. 

“It’s really great to hand off the baton to a friend,” Aroner said. “And I think we can claim this one. With numbers this good, I think it is fair to say that this race is ours.” 

Of her own political future, Aroner, the Berkeley resident, said she is about 99.9 percent sure she will not run for the position of Berkeley Mayor ( as some have wondered) and that she will run for the state Senate. 

Hancock attributed her victory to having a large base of support and her commitment to the environment. 

“All of us claimed that education was a priority but I think my long history of commitment to the environment really made the difference,” Hancock said. 

Cal third baseman Conor Jackson hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning to beat visiting Georgetown, 6-5, on Tuesday afternoon. 

The first three Cal batters of the inning walked to load the bases, and Jackson hit the first pitch he saw from Georgetown reliever Sean Cox over the left-field wall for the dramatic victory, the Bears’ eighth in their last nine games. 

“That’s a first for me,” Jackson said of his game-winning shot. “I was just missing all day, and I just wanted one more at-bat to make up for it.” 

The game went into extra innings when the Bears score two runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the score. John Baker and pinch-hitter Matt Einspahr drove in runs with a double and single, respectively, Einspahr’s coming with two outs. 

The Hoyas answered by scoring three runs in the top of the 10th. Matt Carullo started things off with a one-out single, and Cal hurler Arthur Gross walked the next batter before leaving the game. Blake Read threw gas on the fire, giving up two singles and a walk without recording an out to surrender two runs, then senior Matt Payne’s first pitch was wild, scoring Carlos Gazitua. Payne avoided further damage when left fielder Brad Smith made a diving catch on a James Supple flare down the line, and ended up with the win when Jackson hit his slam. 

“We were lucky to win,” Cal head coach David Esquer said. “The only thing we did well was to win.” 

Both teams threw up goose eggs for the first seven innings. Cal’s Ryan Atkinson, making his first start of the season after an offseason injury, threw two innings before giving way to freshman Joe Todoroff.  

Todoroff was solid through the seventh inning, giving up just two hits, but tired after throwing 75 pitches. Tony Lee led off the eighth with a single for the Hoyas, with leadoff hitter Mike Green sacrificing him to second. Todoroff got Carullo to ground out, with Lee moving over to third, but Ron Cano rapped a double to the gap in right, scoring Lee with the game’s first run. Gazitua followed with an RBI single to center, just past diving shortstop Jeff Dragicevich, and the Hoyas had a two-run lead. 

The Bears looked flat for the first eight innings, as they got baserunners in every inning but the fifth but couldn’t score anyone. In fact, no Cal player made it as far as third base until the ninth. Georgetown starter Tom O’Connor threw five quick innings, with sidearmer Tony Pina coming on to mow down the Bears for three more frames. 

Cal second baseman Carson White started the ninth with a single off of Pina’s leg, and Georgetown quickly went to closer Kevin Galvin. Galvin got Jackson to fly out to deep center, but Baker lined a shot to center, and Gazitua slipped down while chasing the ball, allowing White to score and putting Baker on second base. Dragicevich drew a walk, but Galvin struck out pinch-hitter Chris Grossman on a pitch in the dirt, and Cal was down to its last out. 

Up came Einspahr, who grounded the ball into the hole on the right side, plating pinch-runner Creighton Kahoalii and sending the game into extra innings. 

The bottom of the tenth had to be painful for the Hoyas. After issuing just four walks in the first nine innings, Galvin, Mike Halloran and Cox teamed up to issue free passes to Cal’s Dave Nicholson, Dave Weiner and White.  

“Turnabout is fair play, I suppose,” Esquer said. “We gave them all kinds of opportunities in the previous inning, so I guess it was their turn to give us something.” 

Jackson, who hadn’t had a hit all day, stepped to the plate and hit his seventh homer of the season just when the Bears needed it most. 

“It seems like every time we get down, and that’s when we start really playing hard,” Jackson said. “It’s not something we can count on, so we have to work on getting started earlier in the game.” 

NOTES: The Bears take on rival Stanford this weekend in a non-league series. The Bears will start ace Trevor Hutchinson for Friday’s opener, with Brian Montalbo going on Saturday. Esquer said Sunday’s starter will depend on who throws in the first two games.

Dear Editor: 

In light of the $6 million deficit faced by our school district, the $520,000 saved by the high school reorganization plan developed by the Superintendent of Schools with the help of the High School Leadership Team, and the lack of any suggestion as to an alternate which would save a comparable (or any) amount of money, I find completely irresponsible the suggestion by some members of the community that we should continue to lobby the school board to reverse its decision on a six period day at the high school.  

Are they forgetting that $2 million more must be cut before the budget is balanced and that the fate of many programs (library, Reading Recovery, middle school administration) and one school (City of Franklin) are still in the balance? Don’t they realize or care that retaining a seventh period at the high school will make it harder to save librarians and Reading Recovery? Or is it just the same old attitude that got us into this mess: I want what I want and the board can always find a way to pay for the rest?  

My daughter will be a BHS freshman next year. I don’ want to see drastic reductions in electives. But after listening to the board discussions and consulting with parents who have been involved with the high school and citizen oversight for years, I personally am ready to accept it as an unfortunate necessity at this time.  

Miraculously, the plan comes with an important benefit to counterbalance the loss. Every parent I’e talked to thinks the increase from 45 to 55 minutes of instructional time in each period will be a huge plus for the program. I believe the Board should proceed with deliberate speed to finish the budget and let the community see what the reduced program will look like at all levels.  

Only then can we make a judgment that takes into account all students. Let’ not give in to tunnel vision and hysteria. Do we really believe that cutting back to six periods will “ruin Berkeley High for generations to come” as has been stated by those organizing this protests. I fear this kind of emotionalism will only end up undermining our high school further if the community learns in the end that the district simply can’t pay for the old elective program at this time. 

Marilyn Boucher  

Wednesday, March 6

Draft 2001-2010 Short Range  

Transit Plan 

6 p.m. 

AC Transit Board Room - 2nd Floor 

1600 Franklin St. 

A public hearing before the AC Transit Board of Directors will be held to receive input prior to the adoption of the SRTP. www.actransit.org. 

Healing Mission 

6:45 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

Catholic Lay Missionary John Cojanis from the Diocese of Tucson will be conducting a large Healing Mission—spiritual, emotional and physical—everyone is invited to attend. 526-4811x19. 

Colombia and Drug  

Trafficking 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

One hour lecture by Dr. Luis Felipe Suarez - former Colombian Consul General in Puerto Rico and San Francisco, followed by one hour of questions. A Foreign Policy Association program. $5. 526-2925. 

Germbusters Puppet Show 

2:30 - 3 p.m. 

Hall of Health, Lower Level 

2230 Shattuck Ave.  

Hall of Health staff will perform two short, lively puppet shows about germs, their effects on the body, cleanliness, and proper hand-washing technique. For children ages 3 to 10. 549-1564, www.hallofhealth.org. 

Sight-Singing Classes 

6:30 - 7:20 p.m. 

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church 

6013 Lawton Ave., Oakland 

Intermediate level sight-singing classes, 5 class series, $25 for the series. 465-4199, osc1@mindspring.com. 

Peace Walk and Vigil 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley BART Station 

To demonstrate opposition to war and the U. S. bombing of Afghanistan. www.indymedia.org. 

"Global AIDS Treatment  

Access: Victories won and  

new challenges  

on the horizon" 

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

1797 Madera St. 

A HealthGAP benefit houseparty/reception. Presentations by AIDS Treatment News Editor John James and international AIDS activist Julie Davids plus entertainment. 841-4339, www.healthgap.org. 

Sequencing the Human  

Genome: Prokaryotes 

4:10 p.m. 

International House Auditorium  

2299 Piedmont Ave. 

Public lecture by Dr. J. Craig Venter, chairman of the board for the Institute for Genomic Research. 643-7413, www.grad.berkeley.edu/lectures. 

Transnational Urbanism:  

Locating Globalization 

12:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Berkeley Center for Globalization and Information Technology Spring 2002  

Speaker Series with Michael P. Smith, UC Davis. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/ 

Thursday, March 7

Ancient Cultures of the Indian Himalaya 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Slide presentation by Barbara Sansone through the Kinnaur and Spiti Valley in eastern Himachul Pradesh. 527-4140. 

Resisting the Occupation: Jewish Peace  

Activists in Israel and Palestine 

7 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Seth Schneider and Jerry Geffner were part of a recent American Jewish delegation that removed roadblocks, planted olive trees, monitored checkpoints, and met with Israeli and Palestinian peace organizations. Join them as they share slides and stories from their December trip. $5-10 sliding scale, proceeds benefit Rafah refugees. 301-0842, seth_schneider@yahoo.com. 

Sequencing the Human Genome: Eukaryotes 

4:10 p.m. 

International House Auditorium  

2299 Piedmont Ave. 

Public lecture by Dr. J. Craig Venter, chairman of the board for the Institute for Genomic Research. 643-7413, www.grad.berkeley.edu/lectures. 

Friday, March 8

International Women’s Day 

1 - 2:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Music, history, and speakers.  

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Celebrating International Women’s Day 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Theatre  

2640 College Ave. 

International Women's Day celebration with Suheir Hammad, poet and author of "First Writing Since" and "Born Palestinian, Born Black." This event is 

presented by the Arab Women's Solidarity Association and Women of Color 

Resource Center. All are welcome to both the reception at 6 p.m. and the 

program at 7 p.m. $10 - $30, sliding scale. 845-8542, www.coloredgirls.org. 

Berkeley Critical Mass Ninth Birthday Ride 

5:30 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART 

Roll through the streets with glee to celebrate the ninth 

birthday of the monthly Berkeley Critical Mass ride. Party follows. http://www.bclu.org/couch/. 

Men Considering Serving in the Roman Catholic church as a priest or brother 

9 p.m. 

Precious Blood Mission House  

2800 Milvia 

An Evening of Dialogue and Discernment for men who are considering serving in the Roman Catholic church as a priest or brother. RSVP to Rev. Gary M. Luiz, 848-1053. 

Saturday, March 9

Train for the Eco-Challenge 

2 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Liz Caldwell and Barry Siff, veteran members of Team REI-Salomon, with a slide presentation on their recent Eco-Challenge events in New Zealand and Borneo. They will discuss how to train for a competition, select team members and prevent injury. 527-4140. 

Sunday, March 10

Storytelling Women 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Live Oak Center, Social Hall 

1301 Shattuck Ave. 

Women tellers telling about women who inspire their lives. 4 storytellers and a musician. Part of the annual women’s and girls’ tea party and storytelling ceremony held in Codornices Park. $30 suggested. 841-6612. 

The Labor Movement, Democracy  

and the Political Vacuum 

noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

411 28th St., Oakland 

Presentation by Steve Zeltzer. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Monday, March 11

The Science Behind Global Warming, and How You Can Reduce Your Impact 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

University Ave. and Bonar St. 

Susan Ode, Berkeley Energy Commission, will provide an update on the science and implications of global warming for the world, plus a practical list of actions you can incorporate in your life to protect the global climate and improve the quality of your life. 981-5435, energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Odyssey of Conflict and Odyssey of Mastery-- Polanyi, Pirsig, Zen, and the Art of Knowing 

3:30 - 5 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion, Mudd 206 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Lecture and discussion presented by Allen Dyer, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at East Tennessee State University, also former chair of the ethics committee of the American Psychiatric Association. Free and open to the public. 849-8285. 

Learning from The History of Government 

noon 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Positive Political Theory Seminar with Roger Myerson, University of Chicago. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/. 

Tuesday, March 12

An Evening with Numfundo Walaza:  

The Burden of Forgiveness 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

An evening with Numfundo Walaza, director of the Trauma Center for Survivors of Violence and Torture in Capetown, South Africa. Walaza will talk about "The Burden of Forgiveness: Reflections from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of South Africa." $15. 204-0720, mkmorrison@cdsp.edu. 

Wednesday, March 13

Trees Forum 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

Amahra Hicks of USF, and Jeff Romm of UCB discuss "Just Forests Initiative: Faith-based Activism for Public Land." Free and open to the public. www.gtu.edu/StudServ/TREES. 

Berkeley City Councilmembers were not in their office yesterday — not because they were slacking off, but because they were getting the vote out. And it wasn’t even an election year. 

Councilmember Dona Spring turned her house into a phone bank to lobby for her favorite for state Assembly Loni Hancock and make sure registered voters went to the polls. So did Linda Maio. 

“People have been in and out all day long,” said Spring. “We’ve got lists identifying voters for Loni Hancock and Barbara Lee and we’re calling to check to see if they’ve voted.”  

Her volunteers are also going to polls to check their lists of Hancock and Lee supporters against the lists of people who voted. People were also out on foot distributing literature. 

“I want to help my friend Loni Hancock, who served with me on the council,” said Spring. “I really want my district to have a progressive.” 

Mayor Shirley Dean said that she was out yesterday morning doing her part to sway voters to vote for Hancock’s opponent in the hotly contested state assembly race. She was holding signs for Chris Ramsey and talking to people near polling places. 

“It’s kind of a long-term tradition to get people to vote in general and vote for the candidate you’re supporting,” said Dean. 

Indeed, for the last ten years, Betty Olds has been an elections monitor for Alameda County. Her assistant said Olds spent 7 AM to 8 PM yesterday patrolling 25 polling places in Berkeley to make sure all the equipment worked as it should and there were no disturbances. 

It was a long day for all of them, even though there was no City Council meeting. Kriss Worthington, whose day started at 5 AM, has also been helping the Hancock campaign. He spent election day hanging flyers on doors and calling people to remind them to vote. 

He said he was offering people rides to polling places if they cannot get their on their own, regardless of their political affiliation though he did target Democrats. In the afternoon, he rolled one woman to a polling place in her wheelchair and helped her punch holes because she is blind. 

“Since I was 14, I’ve been a part of elections and getting out the vote, unlike some gubernatorial candidates,” said Worthington.  

“I grew up wanting to see the world a better place. I learned that politics and government was a tool I could use.”  

Bears end first day in first place 

SALINAS, Calif. - No. 17 California maintained a one shot lead over New Mexico State by shooting a 300 Tuesday for a two-day total of 589 to lead the 21st-annual Spartan Invitational at Corral de Tierra Country Club. In all, the top six teams in the 16-team tournament are within six shots of each other.  

The Bears, winners of last week’s Bay Area Classic, look to win back-to-back titles for the first time in school history with a strong final round tomorrow.  

New Mexico State is second with a 590, and No. 22 Pepperdine and No. 19 Washington are tied for third at 591. 

Cal junior Ria Quizon led the field by three strokes yesterday after firing a four-under 68 but dropped to a tie for 41st after shooting an 87 in the second round. Sophomore Sarah Huarte leads the Bears in a tie for fourth with two rounds of 72 and is only four strokes off the pace.  

Competing as an individual, Cal sophomore Anna Temple is having an impressive showing, standing in a tie for seventh with a 145 (71-74). Bear senior Anne Walker continues to be steady, holding down a tie for 13th at 147 (73-74).  

South Carolina’s Kristy McPherson was one of three golfers to shoot a 69 on Tuesday. She leads the individual standings with a 4-under 140, three shots better than Mikaela Parmlid of USC and Lindsay Wright of Pepperdine who each are at 143 for their two-day total.  

Tee times begin today at 8 a.m.  

Cal field hockey places seven on academic team 

Seven players from the 2001 NorPac Champion, California, were selected to the 2001 National Field Hockey Coaches Association Academic Squad. This marks the second-consecutive year that the Golden Bears have placed seven athletes to the annual team.  

Cal’s selections were dominated by juniors as Lisa D’Anjou, Sharan Kalla, Pooja Mehta, Danya Sawyers and Michelle Wald made the cut. Sophomores Nora Feddersen and Alyssa Sprenger were the other selections.  

In 2001, the Bears earned a postseason berth for the first time since 1994, and the first appearance in head coach Shellie Onstead’s tenure.

Editor: 

I want to congratulate Jia-Rui Chong on her balanced article of February 28, 2002 ("Transportation, parking woes continue with rally on campus"). I have a clarification to make. At one point Ms. Chong writes that although the shuttle bus to the Rockridge BART Station "made a lot of locals happy, the shuttle did not achieve its goal and would have become too expensive." She attributes this comment to me. In fact what I explained to her was that the program, developed in conjunction with the City of Berkeley, AC Transit, LBNL and the Berkeley campus, was aimed at those who live in Contra Costa County and drive to the campus. The goal was to persuade them to use BART and take a convenient shuttle from Rockridge to the campus. That effort was wholly unsuccessful, attributed to the difficulty in finding parking at BART stations and the additional time added to the commute. The majority of those who were using the free access to AC Transit buses were not those who were drove regularly to the campus. AC Transit staff have said consistently that in order to have a class pass type program for employees, all 12,000 UC Berkeley staff would  

need to be enrolled just like the student program. Since such a program would be cost prohibitive and only meet the transit needs of a limited number of faculty and staff, the campus is looking at other alternatives. 

Nadesan Permaul 

Director of Transportation 

University of California, Berkeley 

Election night always tempts the tongue of pundits and insiders — to predict victory, defeat and the fate of future elections. But last night’s election proved to be a little less than illuminating as councilmember Linda Maio did not announce any intention to run for Mayor in Berkeley and Councilmember Kriss Worthington’s name was mentioned for the first time as a possible candidate. 

“It is important for us to get a consensus candidate,” said Paul Hogarth of the Rent Stabilization Board. 

Councilmember Dona Spring stated there was no official word from the progressive party in terms of who they would be placing on the upcoming November ballot to face Mayor Shirley Dean, a moderate. But she did say that now that the state Assembly race is over, the issue is quickly moving up their agenda.  

Spring also stated that her and other progressives would be caucusing about the matter today at her apartment. 

One person she mentioned that might in fact be running is Darryl Moore, a Berkeley city staffer. Moore is an African-American and would bring a completely different perspective to City Council Spring referred to him as a progressive but stated that he would also be a bridge-builder — meaning a candidate who could work with both sides of the existing city council. 

Editor: 

The responses to my letter explaining why Jerry Wiggins would be a better County School Board Member than Jackie Fox Ruby by Current Board member Selawsky and Ruby herself are strange indeed, they both argue that Ruby didn't know what was going on around her either as a School District employee or as a Berkeley Citizen and Berkeley Citizens should not expect her to have any insight to District Operations and certainly she has no responsibility to inform fellow employees or neighbors of any indications of problems. Selawsky goes on to explain that Ruby could not be expected to have any of the skills required of a Board Member.  

Why do they conclude that this lack of experience and necessary skills qualifies her to be making policy decisions and perform the fiscal oversight for the County of Alameda? 

Ruby's also has memory difficulties, I along with Alvin Warwas and Bill O'Regan successfully sued the School District forcing them to use Berkeley Schools Excellence Program tax monies as stipulated in the imitative instead of the as their “Cookie Jar.”  

John Cecil 

Berkeley

A local debate over gay rights, the Boy Scouts, the military and federal funding for education came to a boil Monday night at a meeting of the Peace and Justice Commission. 

The debate centered on portions of the “No Child Left Behind” law, signed by President Bush in January, which require school districts to provide military recruiters with high school students’ contact information, and the Boy Scouts with meeting space on school grounds.  

A failure to provide meeting space, under the new law, will result in the loss of federal education funding, which flows into the Berkeley Unified School District to the tune of $6 to $8 million per year. 

Current district policy may conflict with the federal law. The district limits military recruiters’ access to students and does not allow groups that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation to use school facilities.  

Editor: 

In his March 2 letter to the Daily Planet, Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn either misunderstands or misrepresents the university’s position on transit incentive programs. The campus is very committed to promoting the use of transit by its employees, but the subsidy of a bus-only pass for staff may not be the answer.  

The majority of university employees who currently purchase transit tickets from the campus use BART. Among Berkeley campus employees are also those who commute from Contra Costa County, San Francisco, and other areas outside of Alameda County. To limit our program to an AC Transit-only 

program would probably be ineffective and inequitable, providing a disproportionate subsidy for one transit user group on the campus.  

The City of Berkeley’s pilot Ecopass Program has only recently been launched, and it is too soon to know whether it will be successful in reducing the drive alone rate for employees and the demand for parking.  

In fact, the Berkeley campus is studying a more expansive program that would better meet the needs of its nearly 14,000 employees.  

The campus advocates a balanced model that considers both parking demand and transit utilization and works steadily to encourage transit without ignoring the need for appropriate parking. For example, the Berkeley campus utilizes funds collected from parking citations to fund our shuttle bus system, which takes campus users to the downtown Berkeley BART station and around the perimeter of the campus. We provide almost 900,000 shuttle rides per year.  

Wrenn complains that our parking fees are not high enough, yet we have raised campus parking rates between 55-70% over the past four years. In fact, the Berkeley campus parking rates may be the highest for a college or university west of the Mississippi. Additionally, each parking permit holder contributes $36.00 per year to the New Directions in Transportation program, which promotes transit, car pool, and bicycle use. 

The student Class Pass program, on which the City’s Ecopass Program was based, was initiated through a pilot program financed by the Chancellor.  

The campus through its students and the staff at Parking & Transportation worked with AC Transit to implement this acclaimed program twice through successful referendums. I trust we can be as creative and effective in our search for a program to meet the needs of faculty and staff. The Berkeley campus is committed to the goals of the joint UC-COB Transportation Demand Management study, and we are working with city staff towards them. 

Nadesan Permaul 

Director of Transportation 

UC Berkeley

Superintendent Michele Lawrence, who proposed closing City of Franklin Microsociety Magnet School in January, laid out two options for saving the school in a meeting with parents Tuesday night.  

First, Lawrence suggested that Franklin, which is modeled after a small city, could remain open next year on a shoestring budget, without a full-time principal, while the district completes a one-year refurbishing of the building.  

The superintendent said the school would have to make do with limited funds under this scenario because it is underenrolled, and the district cannot afford to allocate a full school budget to a relatively small number of students.  

Second, the superintendent said the district could close down the school for a year during construction, give City of Franklin parents first choice of schools for next year, and invite them back the following year.  

Lawrence made it clear that, no matter how the district handles construction and enrollment next year, the school cannot continue to operate, as it currently does, in subsequent years. 

Franklin is a magnet school and can only accept students who choose to enroll. The three year-old school has drawn less than 200 students, and the district cannot run it cost-effectively, Lawrence said. 

In order to address the problem, Lawrence said the district could convert Franklin from a magnet school to a normal neighborhood elementary school, allowing for standard enrollment. To do so, the district would have to give up two years of federal magnet school funding. 

She added that the district could place a pre-school, alternative education, or other program alongside Franklin, which resides in a large building, in order to make better use of the space. 

Lawrence ruled out the possibility of moving another elementary school into the building, alongside Franklin, even though parents suggested the maneuver as a way to make better use of building, and save Franklin. 

The superintendent had raised the possibility herself in recent weeks, suggesting at a Board of Education meeting that the district might place Jefferson School in the building. But Jefferson parents, in a recent meeting with Lawrence, strongly opposed the idea. 

“I was there for two-and-a-half-hours getting beaten up,” said Lawrence, describing the Jefferson meeting. She said Jefferson parents would never go for the move. 

Lawrence suggested at the meeting that she would prefer to close down the school for a year during construction, rather than keep students in the building. 

But at the end of the night, parents said they were resolved to keep the school open next year. 

They added that they would be willing to move from a magnet to a normal school model, but said they want to keep the microsociety concept in place. 

Lawrence said, during the meeting, that she is a supporter of the school’s guiding concept, and would seek to keep it alive. “I love the microsociety,” she said. “You don’t have to sell me on the microsociety.” 

Councilmember Linda Maio, who attended the meeting, urged parents to show up in force at Wednesday night’s Board of Education meeting, and to put forth a unified message: “we want our neighborhood school to stay open.” 

Editor: 

I stopped at a downtown Berkeley restaurant around 12:30 p.m. for lunch. 

Although the restaurant attempted to control things by locking the front door and posting a sign that stated only 3 minors could be inside at a time, it was chaos. Kids were shouting and pushing. When one teenager attempted to exit the front door and couldn't open it, another shouted at him that he was a moron and he was stupid and pushed him out of the way to unlock the door. 

The first teenager, slow and lethargic with red half opened eyes, punched the other on the shoulder and was pushed out the door. Lots of pushing followed, including one teenager pushed into the back of an adult that was ordering. When he turned around and complained, the teen started talking: what are you looking at, punk, turn around, shut up. I was standing behind the teen, and I told him that the man was looking at someone who didn't know how to behave in a restaurant.  

He told me to shut my fat *** up. When the man stepped up to back me up, the teen was kicked out by the staff. The other teens that were left were talking about it: He called him a (derogatory name for a gay man) and the guy got mad, they explained to each other. 

It is clear that not all of the students at Berkeley High School have earned the right to go downtown unaccompanied.  

Also, it is very discouraging to see that in tolerant Berkeley, the worse insult the teenagers could think of was to call a man gay.  

Theresa Traynor 

Berkeley 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On March 6, 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege. 

On this date: 

In 1834, the city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto. 

In 1853, Verdi’s opera “La Traviata” premiered in Venice, Italy. 

In 1857, in its “Dred Scott” decision, the Supreme Court held that Scott, a slave, could not sue for his freedom in federal court. 

In 1933, a nationwide bank holiday declared by President Franklin Roosevelt went into effect. 

In 1935, retired Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. died in Washington. 

In 1944, U.S. heavy bombers staged the first American raid on Berlin during World War II. 

In 1957, the former British African colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland became the independent state of Ghana. 

In 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as principal anchorman of “The CBS Evening News.” 

In 1983, in a case that drew much notoriety, a woman in New Bedford, Mass., reported being gang-raped atop a pool table in a tavern called Big Dan’s; four men were later convicted of the attack. 

In 1987, 189 people died when the British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. 

Ten years ago:  

Personal computer users braced for a virus known as “Michelangelo,” set to trigger on March 6, but only scattered cases of lost files were reported. 

Five years ago: 

A gunman stole a million-dollar Picasso portrait (“Tete de Femme”) from a London gallery. (The painting was recovered and two suspects arrested a week later.) Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II launched the first official royal Web site. China introduced new laws to bolster its campaigns against dissent, ethnic separatism and subversive Western ideals. 

One year ago:  

Calling it the “most accurate census in history,” the Bush administration refused to adjust the 2000 head count. Forty-two people, mostly students, were killed in a schoolhouse explosion in southern China; the government blamed a bomber, but parents said the students had been forced to make fireworks by school officials. Bill Mazeroski was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, along with former Negro League player Hilton Smith. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

TV personality Ed McMahon is 79. Conductor Sarah Caldwell is 78. Former FBI and CIA director William Webster is 78. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is 76. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is 65. Country singer Doug Dillard is 65. Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., is 63. Actress-writer Joanna Miles is 62. Actor Ben Murphy is 60. Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is 58. Singer Mary Wilson (The Supremes) is 58. Actor-director Rob Reiner is 55. Singer Kiki Dee is 55. Actor Tom Arnold is 43. Actor D.L. Hughley is 38. Country songwriter Skip Ewing is 38. Actress Yvette Wilson is 38. Actress Moira Kelly is 34. Actress Amy Pietz is 33. Basketball player Shaquille O’Neal is 30. Country musician Shan Farmer (Ricochet) is 28. Actor Jimmy Galeota is 16. Actor Eli Marienthal is 16. 

Olmos files for divorce 

LOS ANGELES — Actor Edward James Olmos has filed for divorce from “The Sopranos” co-star Lorraine Bracco. 

The couple married in 1994 and have been separated since 1997, according to forms filed in court Friday and made public Tuesday. They have no minor children, according to the documents. 

The marriage, the second for both, was marred by a custody battle between Bracco and ex-husband Harvey Keitel over their daughter in which bitter allegations were traded. 

Olmos, who gained fame playing a dour police lieutenant in the TV series “Miami Vice,” is starring in the PBS drama “American Family.” His films include “Stand and Deliver” and “Selena.” 

Bracco, who plays a mobster’s psychiatrist in HBO’s “The Sopranos,” has appeared in films including “Riding in Cars with Boys” and “GoodFellas.” 

Bob Hope gives $1m to Academy 

LOS ANGELES — Bob Hope donated $1 million to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to help build an archive of comedy performances. 

The check was presented Tuesday by Linda Hope, the comedian’s daughter, in the name of her father and her mother, Dolores Hope. 

Bob Hope will turn 99 on May 29 and has been in poor health in recent years. 

The money is earmarked for the Academy’s Archive Comedy Collection, which includes comedy performances and interviews with Steve Allen, Bea Arthur, Phyllis Diller, Bob Newhart, Barbara Eden and others. 

Academy officials hope to someday make the entire collection available over the Internet. 

Thomas W. Sarnoff, president of the Academy’s foundation arm, said the Hope donation will help immortalize the comedian’s work by sustaining efforts to preserve aging comedy footage. 

“It is a most fitting way for the academy to perpetuate the public’s awareness of Bob Hope, his role in the entertainment industry and his contribution to both the archive and to the history of television,” Sarnoff said. 

Roseanne divorces again 

LOS ANGELES — Roseanne has filed for divorce from her third husband, Ben Thomas, citing irreconcilable differences, court records show. 

Roseanne and Thomas, her former bodyguard, have been married since Valentine’s Day 1995. The 49-year-old comedian-actress has asked for full custody of their 6-year-old son, Buck, with visitation rights for the 35-year-old Thomas, court papers showed Monday. 

It was the second time Roseanne filed for divorce from Thomas. She filed papers after a New Year’s Day 1998 event in which Thomas allegedly broke a lamp and window at the couple’s Bel-Air home. The city attorney’s domestic violence unit decided not to file charges. 

The couple had a prenuptial agreement. A message left for Roseanne’s attorney Robert Kaufman was not returned. 

Roseanne’s first marriage to Bill Pentland ended in divorce after 14 years and three children. She and her second husband, actor-comedian Tom Arnold, divorced in November 1994 after nearly four years of marriage. 

Lucy’s home is for sale 

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Lucille Ball’s childhood home is for sale on the Internet. 

The two-story house at 59 W. Lucy Lane in the Chautauqua County village of Celoron was Ball’s home from the time she was 8 years old until she was midway through high school. 

Real estate broker Bruce Turner listed it for a second time on the auction Web site eBay after it sat on the market for nearly a year. The asking price is $98,500. 

Turner first listed the 112-year-old house, about 60 miles south of Buffalo, as an auction. A few bids were over $100,000, he said, but the buyers didn’t come through. 

Now the house is listed in the regular real estate section, meaning there is no auction and any offer, not just the highest, will be considered. 

Turner said interest has been widespread, and estimates 5,000 people have taken a cyber look at the house in the month or so it has been listed. 

He said the house has aluminum siding, natural original woodwork and an upstairs bathroom that has changed little since the house was built. The kitchen has been updated some. 

“It’s just a nice older home,” he said. 

“I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing, but I did think it was pretty shady,” said Berkeley City Councilmember Betty Olds about Gov. Gray Davis’ anti-Richard Riordan campaign that perhaps did not give Bill Simon the GOP primary but certainly did not hurt. 

Riordan, the former Mayor of Los Angeles watched his early lead diminish considerably as Davis pumped dollars into negative television ads that questioned Riordan’s commitment to issues such as abortion and gun control.  

Riordan fired back, blaming Davis for the energy crisis and trying to closely align him to the Enron debacle. What neither candidate did do was focus on their opponents.  

Riordan said yesterday after conceding to the newcomer Simon that the GOP’s “main goal has to be to replace Gray Davis. He’s a disgrace to this state. 

“I will work with whoever the nominee is to get rid of Gray Davis and get some real leadership in California,” said Riordan. 

He accused Davis of hijacking the Republican primary. 

Joel Fried, a Berkeley resident said he felt that Davis motives were manipulative and made him appear desperate. 

“And if it doesn’t work, he’s really going to look foolish,” he added. 

But, on the other hand, Olds stated that it was in some ways shrewd. 

“A lot of people were upset with him after this last year. But as mad as anyone was, I don’t know what Democrat would vote for Simon. But I do know several people might have voted for Riordan,” she added. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington brought another perspective. “the most extreme candidate is not always the weakest,” he said, adding that many Democrats were ecstatic when former US President Ronald Reagan won the presidential primary. 

Earlier Tuesday, Davis defended his assault on Riordan.  

“Let’s just remember who fired the first shot. Mayor Riordan decided to make this a general election campaign and we responded,” Davis said after voting in Los Angeles. 

State Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres cheered Simon’s lead early Tuesday night, borrowing a phrase used by Riordan in the waning days of the GOP race and calling him an “unelectable extremist.” 

Davis’ chief campaign adviser Garry South said Davis, who has still has tens of millions to spend on his re-election bid, is prepared to quickly strike out at Simon’s conservative views — on such issues as vouchers for private school, abortion and gun control — even though the general election is eight months away. 

“You can assume that we will have a very aggressive campaign and it will start tonight,” South said. 

The ASSOCIATED PRESS CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is committing more aircraft to the battle with al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts in eastern Afghanistan, sending in five Marine Corps attack helicopters after enemy fire damaged Army copters. 

Military officials said all of the Army AH-64 Apache assault helicopters operating in the battle zone had been hit by weapons fire. Some of the choppers were damaged enough to require repairs but none were shot down during the operations south of Gardez this week, officials said. 

The five Marine AH-1W Cobra attack helicopters went into battle Tuesday, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. They moved to a base in Afghanistan from the USS Bonhomme Richard in the North Arabian Sea, along with two CH-53 Super Stallion transport helicopters. 

The Cobra, with a crew of two, is armed with a 20mm cannon and can fire a wide variety of precision guided missiles, including Hellfire and TOW anti-armor missiles and Sidewinder anti-air missiles. 

Apache helicopters also have a two-person crew and carry 30mm cannon and can fire Hellfire anti-tank missiles, 70mm rockets and anti-aircraft missiles. 

Threats to U.S. interests extend beyond the battle in Gardez. U.S. intelligence has learned of a plot to conduct multiple car bombings in the Afghan capital, Kabul, against both Western interests and the interim government headed by Hamid Karzai, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

The attacks were to have been carried out by terrorist cells with links to al-Qaida, the official said. It was unclear what became of the plot. 

The New York Times reported in its Wednesday editions that U.S. officials have detected Internet traffic among al-Qaida members indicating the terror network may be trying to regroup in remote sanctuaries in Pakistan near the Afghan border. 

The new communications traffic was a serious concern because U.S. officials fear that al-Qaida could use the Internet to launch new terror attacks against the United States, the Times reported, citing senior American officials. 

U.S. troops have detained four people during the most recent fighting in Afghanistan, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said. Another man was detained and released, Clarke said. 

REDWOOD CITY — The Minnesota doctor accused of stabbing her son to death again blurted out in court Tuesday that she was guilty, this time saying she planned to commit the murder, wanted to be punished for the crime and asked for a death sentence or life in prison, according to the prosecution. 

A San Mateo County Superior Court judge did not accept the outburst as a guilty plea and instead had Donna Anderson removed from the court when she refused to stop talking during the hearing. He granted the defense attorney’s request to have a psychiatrist evaluate Anderson. 

Anderson, 48, is being held in the San Mateo County jail’s medical wing on charges she stabbed her son, Stephen Burns, to death on Feb. 24 in her ex-husband’s Burlingame home. She also is accused of stabbing her ex-husband, Frank Burns, while he tried to restrain her.

If a report card was given out to American media based on their coverage of the Middle East, the grade would be barely passing, according to those who compare it to overseas coverage. 

"I give them a C-," said William Drummond, professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, referring to U.S. news outlets’ coverage of conflict in the Middle East.  

Drummond said he feels American media outlets rarely put Mideast issues in the right context, and even more rarely talk about the consequences. "Look at the British papers; they are so much better, even the Indian papers, as far as context and consequences," he said. "I think we’re just barely average."  

British news outlets , he said, put the stories about the Middle East conflict in context: a view that separates government interests from the regional interests. On the other hand, Drummond says the majority of the U.S. press is unable to do the same, especially after September 11th.  

"From day one I think we were all caught in the glamour of a military engagement and a lot of the stories that were being done were ‘GI Joe stories;’ local news media went out to Fairfield and watched the planes take off ," Drummond said. "But all of this stuff was really a worm’s eye view of what was going on overall: we’re going to commit U.S. forces 10,000 miles away without a real clear goal in mind of what we’re up to."  

Part of the problem he said, was the lack of demanding readers. "Most of the people here are relatively inert and we’re not politically engaged," he said adding that the foreign coverage is more of an "annoyance" to a population obsessed with its own problems. "So, there’s not a total commitment to figuring this out," he said referring to the Middle East.  

"Now, if this changes and we start, as we did, we woke up one morning back in the 60s and we were up to our rear ends in alligators with Southeast Asia, then people want to know and the media will react." 

George Krimsky, co-founder of the International Center for Journalists and co-author of Hold the Press : The Inside Story on Newspapers wrote on foreign coverage in the January/February 2002 issue of the American Journalism Review.

A few changes in the Alameda County voting process meant that Berkeley voters in yesterday’s primary elections had to deal with more than hanging chads. 

The Alameda County Registrar of Voters instituted three changes to the voting process this March.  

• Districts for the U.S. House of Representatives, the State Assembly and the State Senate have been redrawn. Although Berkeley remains in the same district it always has, the elected official will have to represent a new configuration of towns.  

• “Declined to state” voters were able to vote for all candidates in the Democratic, Republican, American Independent or Natural Law parties except for members of the county central committee. In previous years there was either a strictly closed primary, restricted only to party members, or a completely open primary. The Green Party, however, stuck to closed elections. 

• Any voter was allowed to apply for permanent absentee ballots by mail. In previous years, permanent absentee voters had to be disabled people or the frail elderly. 

Berkeley voters also had some other issues to deal with. Mayor Shirley Dean said that although her office does not have to manage the election, residents called with complaints about accessibility, campaign signs that were too close to the polls and absentee ballots. She managed to resolve the first two with on-site conversations with polling officials and the construction crew, but had to refer the third to the U.S. Postal Service. 

Some polling places in Berkeley also changed. Those who used to vote in the California state building on Berkeley Way and Shattuck, for instance, had to vote in Fire Station No. 1, a block over on Henry St. 

A security guard at the large state office building said that election officials had moved the polling place after heightened security and fear about government buildings after Sept. 11. Leshaun Yopack, a clerk at the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, could not confirm this, but simply said that the state just did not want its building to be a polling place anymore. 

The process of consolidating precincts also shifted some voters around, explained Councilmember Dona Spring. A poll worker at the Fire Station said that she did notice that many people had come in slightly confused after being redirected from the state building.  

But people still turned out. By 12:30, the poll worker said 112 people had already showed up.  

“That’s pretty good,” said the volunteer who has worked elections for more than 10 years. 

“It’s obligatory for me,” said Susana Abasolo, who said that she registered to vote the day after she received her U.S. passport. 

“I’m living here. I’m part of the community. I want to be able to decide,” she said. 

Some voters were not interested in choosing candidates, however. “There was no one I wanted to vote for,” said Ben Blake, who went to the polls specifically to vote on the propositions and the bond measures. 

Blake, who studies mechanical engineering at Cal, said he wanted to register his support of Proposition 42 in particular. 

Other voters did not show up to the polls today at all. They took advantage of the early voter program offered at City Hall and the Alameda County Registrar of Voters before election day. 

Elliot Cohen, who voted two weeks ago, said it was a question of convenience. 

“I liked being able to go in when I wanted,” he said. “The only thing was that I did this before I knew who I was going to vote for in the judicial races. So I didn’t vote for anyone. I figured it out a week later and wish I had known.”  

The early voter plan also allowed Cohen to take advantage of new touchscreen voting machines. Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that this is the second year that the county has used these machines, though voters in yesterday’s election still had to punch cards. 

These touchscreens, good for disabled people and the elderly, could be the new face of voting machines if Proposition 41, the Voting Modernization Bond Act, goes through. 

Worthington said the state wants to have these in place everywhere for the next presidential election. 

“I think the stories about hanging chads really scared people.” 

Indeed, the Florida election made all the voters at the polls wary. They didn’t want to leave anything hanging. 

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Gov. Gray Davis has appointed a former Edison International and Southern California Edison executive as the newest member of the Public Utilities Commission, the state agency that regulates Edison and other investor-owned utilities. 

Davis announced Tuesday he had named economist and former Edison president Michael R. Peevey to replace Richard Bilas at the PUC, a week after Bilas announced he was resigning to care for his ailing wife and because of policy frustrations. 

Davis appointees hold four of the five commission seats, which could help Davis promote his energy policies as the state attempts to settle a $10 billion power-buying debt and resolve its flawed attempt at deregulating its electricity market. The remaining GOP-appointed commissioner is Henry Duque. 

Consumer advocates blasted the decision, saying Peevey has conflicts of interest that could harm the state’s utility customers. 

“Mike Peevey is a former Edison executive. He used to head a company that consults for the private power companies that price gouged in California,” said Doug Heller of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. 

“His professional history is working for the industry that the PUC regulates and his professional relationships are with the people that he’ll be required to stand up against.” 

Peevey’s term begins Saturday and lasts six years. He also has been chief executive of TruePricing Inc., a technology company focused on helping large companies and government institutions track their energy costs. From 1995 to 2000, he was president of NewEnergy Inc., the nation’s largest energy service provider. He led Edison between 1990 and 1993. 

“His insight on the ever-changing electricity market will be invaluable to the commission as it makes decisions about California’s energy future,” Davis said in a statement. 

A legal settlement negotiated in secret by the Davis administration last year helped Edison avoid bankruptcy by maintaining record high electric rate hikes for the next several years and forgoing shareholder dividends. Before the settlement, Davis spent months lobbying the Legislature to buy Edison’s transmission lines to help the utility stay financially stable. 

After review by PUC counsel, Peevey will resign from any position and divest any holdings that might constitute a conflict of interest, the statement said. Peevey holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and is married to Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-La Canada Flintridge. 

Davis also announced Tuesday the appointment of John L. Geesman as a member of the Independent System Operator governing board. The ISO manages the state’s power grid, and has come under fire from critics for working too closely with lawmakers when making energy decisions. 

Since 1985, Geesman has been the Managing Director of Fixed Income Banking for RBC Dain Rauscher Incorporated in San Francisco. Since 2000, he has served as chair of the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, also as a Davis appointee. 

Geesman also is former president of the board of directors for San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network and a member of the Sierra Club. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a juris doctorate degree from Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley. 

Associated Press Writer Karen Gaudette contributed to this report. 

WALNUT CREEK — An opening for a new city manager has attracted 67 applicants from across the country. 

The list of applicants includes public administrators hoping to get a promotion as well as experienced city managers, said Bob Murray of Roseville-based Bob Murray & Associates, the firm hired to help in the process. 

Some applicants have established statewide and nationwide reputations but might find Walnut Creek attractive because of the city’s quality of life, Murray said. 

“It’s a great city (and) has an excellent reputation as a very progressive, well-managed organization,” he said. 

The position has also proven to be very stable. Current City Manager Don Blubaugh will retire in June after 14 years on the job. There have been only five city managers since 1956. 

The deadline to apply passed Thursday. The council probably will interview candidates in April, after Murray narrows the applicant pool down to around 15 candidates. 

SAN JOSE — A highly influential proxy research firm recommended Tuesday that Hewlett-Packard Co. investors approve the proposed $22 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp., giving new life to HP’s efforts to complete the hotly contested deal. 

After reviewing thousands of documents and listening to personal appeals from HP executives and merger opponent Walter Hewlett, Institutional Shareholder Services of Rockville, Md., said the deal could be an excellent long-term move despite its sizable risks. 

The ISS decision was crucial because more than 20 percent of HP shares, including those held by the Hewlett and Packard families and their foundations, have lined up against the deal, with only about 5 percent in the company’s camp. 

A negative report from ISS widely would have been seen as a fatal blow for the deal. Analysts had said a positive report would leave HP with a 50-50 chance of winning the fight. 

HP chairwoman and chief executive Carly Fiorina acknowledged that the ISS recommendation does not “seal the deal,” but said she was “gratified.” 

“Their process was exceptionally thorough and professional,” she said in a conference call with reporters. “We think this is a significant vote of confidence. ... The momentum is clearly moving in our favor.” 

Walter Hewlett immediately blasted the report, saying ISS “missed the point.” In a statement, Hewlett said he still expects to win the proxy fight because many investors independently evaluating the deal agree with his arguments. 

Some analysts and HP’s chief financial officer have estimated that as many as 40 percent of HP shares are held by investors who either will follow ISS’s advice or will be in some way influenced by the report. 

Other analysts put the total much lower, because this deal is so vigorously contested that most money managers will weigh a variety of factors in deciding how to vote. Fiorina declined to speculate on what percentage of shares will be affected. 

At a minimum, ISS could control about 10 percent of HP shares because some investors have ISS vote for them. Barclays Global Investors, which owns 3.1 percent of HP stock and is the company’s fourth-largest investor, has put its votes in ISS’s hands because Barclays chief Patricia Dunn sits on HP’s board. 

HP shares rose 5 cents to $20.60 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange before the ISS report but fell 2.7 percent to $20.05 in after-hours trading. Compaq shares dropped 7 cents to $10.58 in regular trading but rose 5 percent to $11.12 in the extended session. 

The narrowing gap in the companies’ stock prices indicates increasing confidence on Wall Street the deal will happen. 

With HP and Walter Hewlett locked for months in a bruising, political-style campaign for shareholder support, the ISS vote loomed much like a primary election. The campaign is expected to only intensify as the March 19 shareholder vote gets closer. 

“ISS clearly has a predisposition to support management and makes a general presumption that boards do the right thing,” Walter Hewlett said in his statement. “In the post-Enron world, it is obvious that these assumptions need to be questioned. This is especially the case here.” 

Compaq’s chairman and chief executive, Michael Capellas, who would be No. 2 in the new HP, said the ISS recommendation marked “an important milestone in the merger process.” 

HP and Compaq believe that together they will become a dominant force in several growing technology markets, especially corporate computing and high-tech services, while improving the economics of their struggling personal computer divisions and generating $2.5 billion in cost savings. 

Hewlett and other merger opponents worry that absorbing Compaq into HP would be a difficult and distracting process, and that the acquisition would dramatically increase HP’s exposure to the slumping PC business at the expense of the profitable printing and digital imaging division. 

The ISS report, written by Ram Kumar, the firm’s assistant director of U.S. research, closely examined both sides’ arguments and the corporate governance process involved in planning the deal. ISS also consulted with HP’s bankers, Hewlett’s advisers and Fiorina’s predecessor, Lew Platt, who opposes the deal. 

Although ISS said “we share Mr. Hewlett’s belief that integration is one of the most daunting problems facing a combined HP-Compaq,” it concluded the companies appear up to the task. 

ISS also supported the HP board’s contention that it had considered a slew of other strategic options before deciding that buying Compaq was the best course. 

Hewlett has challenged that notion and offered a simpler, “focus and execute” strategy centered more on the printing business. 

“We believe that the Compaq merger provides a better means of maximizing long-term value by exploiting all of HP’s assets rather than just a single ‘crown jewel,”’ ISS said. 

ISS did agree with Hewlett, however, that the company should have disclosed the lavish pay packages that have been considered for Fiorina and Capellas. ISS said the issue indicates HP needs Hewlett or some other “significant shareholder representative” on its board. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Pro-merger site: http://www.votethehpway.com 

Anti-merger site: http://www.votenohpcompaq.com 

SANTA ANA — Microsoft Corp. agreed to pay more than $100,000 to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of consumers claiming they were overbilled for Internet time, an Orange County prosecutor said Tuesday. 

The consumer protection lawsuit charged that Microsoft and its subsidiary Microsoft Network LLP failed to promptly terminate subscribers’ Internet accounts on request. 

Microsoft did not admit any wrongdoing in the case, but agreed to the settlement and to end a controversial credit card procedure. 

The settlement amount includes $100,000 in civil penalties and investigation costs plus a yet-to-be-determined amount for restitution, said deputy district attorney Andrea Burke. 

The case involved about two dozen customers who could not provide Microsoft with the last six digits of their credit card on file because their cards had changed. Microsoft told users they had to get their original credit card numbers from their bank before the company would cancel the service, Burke said. 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — PG&E Corp. reported sharply higher profits at its bankrupt utility on Tuesday and disclosed $64 million in employee bonuses, punctuating a stunning reversal of fortune in the power market over the past year. 

The San Francisco-based company earned $529 million, or $1.45 per share, during the final three months of 2001 — rebounding from a loss of $4.1 billion, or $11.34 per share, at the same time in the previous year. 

The fourth-quarter loss of 2000 stemmed from an accounting charge to cover the huge deficit the company accumulated as California’s wholesale electricity prices soared far above the utility’s then-frozen retail rates. 

For the full year, PG&E Corp. earned $1.1 billion, or $3.02 per share, bouncing back from a loss of $3.4 billion, or $9.29 per share, in 2000. “We would view these as solid results in any year,” PG&E Chairman Robert Glynn said. 

Last year’s performance qualified about 6,200 of PG&E’s administrative employees for $64 million in bonuses, a 28 percent increase from the $50 million in bonuses distributed in the prior year, company spokesman Ron Low said. 

The 2001 bonuses, paid last week, averaged slightly more than $10,000 per eligible employee. The company drew upon revenue from its utility’s customers to pay for about 25 percent of the bonuses, with the remaining amount coming from shareholders’ pockets, Low said. 

PG&E gave its employees the money even though its main business — Pacific Gas and Electric — is still trying to devise a plan to repay billions in debt and emerge from bankruptcy court protection. 

The company didn’t need bankruptcy court approval to distribute the bonuses because they are “part of the company’s normal course of business,” Low said. 

A consumer activist blasted the bonuses.“Instead of paying bonuses, they ought to be lowering rates,” said Bill Ahern, energy analyst for Consumers Union. Ahern and 24 other PG&E customers last week asked state regulators to rescind the largest electricity rate increase in California history, imposed in June to help the state’s ailing utilities. The customers contend falling wholesale power prices have turned the June rate increase into a windfall for PG&E. The widening gap between retail electricity rates and wholesale power costs enabled PG&E to recover about $458 million, or $1.26 per share, that it previously had written off. 

It was when he saw a young girl in a traditional chador and veil do a wheelie around the room that Pat DeTemple said he knew he was making a difference. 

The Electronic Media Manager for the City of Berkeley returned last Wednesday from a trip to Tehran to distribute wheelchairs as part of an effort by the Wheelchair Foundation. After raising about $75,000, he and nine other Berkeley residents paid their own flights to Iran. 

Fred Gerhard, the distribution manager for the Wheelchair Foundation who was the tenth member of the team, said he was impressed by the commitment and enthusiasm of the Berkeley group.  

“We don’t usually get so many U.S. volunteers,” he said. 

Working with the Red Crescent Society, the Red Cross of Iran, the team helped distribute 480 wheelchairs to women and men of all ages who could not afford their own. 

“These were really poor people,” said DeTemple. “They were already not well off economically and having a disability made their lives doubly hard. There’s a connection between mobility and poverty.” 

About six percent of Iran’s population needs a wheelchair but cannot afford one. A shoddy wheelchair still costs $180 in Iran, the equivalent of one year’s salary. It costs $150 for the Wheelchair Foundation to buy, ship and distribute a wheelchair that will last for years. 

“You change an individual’s life when you give them a wheelchair,” said Mark Rhoades, a friend and fellow city staffer. For those who don’t have cars or a lot of jewelry, he said, “It’s probably the biggest thing they own.” 

Giving a person mobility, added Erin Banks, was the first step to a better life. “First they get mobility, then they can get education, get a job, and support a family.” 

The shock was written plainly on the people’s faces, said Soheyl Modarressi, a native of Iran now living in Berkeley. 

“They just couldn’t believe someone who doesn’t speak the language would get on their knees and adjust the wheelchair for their comfort. A lot of them were abandoned by their families or institutions,” he said. 

The trip was a life-changing event not just for the disabled people in Iran and their caregivers, but also for the Berkeley delegation. 

Banks said that it shattered a lot of preconceptions. Although friends and family were worried about her going to a place on President George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil,” she felt no hostility towards Americans.  

Indeed, she said they seemed eager to meet the team. Groups of schoolgirls would even walk alongside them to practice their English. 

The “silent solidarity” of women also surprised her since media accounts have painted women in the Middle East as uniformly downtrodden.  

“When I saw women in the street, they would make eye contact and smile at each other,” said Banks. When she did not know what to do with the chador she was handed at a mosque, a teenage girl came over and, wordlessly, started to show her how to wear it. 

Going to Iran and talking to the people revealed how complex the political and social landscape is there, said DeTemple. 

“It’s easy to think one thing when you read the paper. But there are 70 million people there, each with life stories and ambitions and aspirations. It’s not easily reduced to one interpretation,” he said. 

The group, however, was surprised by how little people thought about disability issues in Iran. Not only were cities not planned with disabled people in mind, but few seemed aware that there even was a need for wheelchairs.  

The group plans to continue their work. They had to turn some people away who needed specialized wheelchairs for polio or specific injuries and could not use the standard ones the group brought. They also hope to bring wheelchairs to nonurban areas. 

“Our goal here is to eliminate the need for wheelchairs in Iran,” said Modarressi. In the next four months, they hope to deliver another 240 new wheelchairs and 200 specialized, refurbished wheelchairs. 

They plan to hold another fundraising dinner since their first event at the Santa Fe Grill, owned by Ahmad Behjati, another member of the delegation, was so successful.  

They will also continue to work with the Wheelchair Foundation since they agreed it was the most organized charity they had ever worked with. They also appreciated the fact that benefactor Kenneth Behring not only matches donations but pays for all administrative overhead. 

Modaressi, who hatched the wheelchairs-for-Iran idea two years ago after a visit to hospitals where two or three wheelchairs had to service 700, said that he and his group of friends will not stop helping people because it is addictive. While problems such as AIDS and hunger that will take much more longer to solve, he said immediate impact here was very rewarding. 

“You can see their smile and see the amount of difference you can make,” said Modaressi. “You can see their old wheelchair and you you think, ‘How can they even sit on this thing?’ It’s so sad. “Now it’s like changing clothes after 40 years.” 

PORTLAND, Ore. — There was no wild celebration or trash talking after Portland extended its winning streak to 10 games by beating the team with the NBA’s best record. 

Instead, the Trail Blazers’ locker room was filled with a sense of quiet confidence after a 107-95 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Monday night. 

“We are going to take this win and cherish it for a moment,” said Scottie Pippen, who had 19 points, six rebounds and five assists. “But we realize that everybody’s coming in and trying to stop what we have going.” 

Bonzi Wells scored 20 points, and Dale Davis had 18 points and 14 rebounds for the Blazers, who are 23-5 in their last 28 games and have won 11 of 12 since the All-Star break. 

“We just have a bunch of guys playing with a lot of energy,” Portland coach Maurice Cheeks said. “Everyone that steps in the game plays hard, no matter how many minutes they play. I think that’s the difference in our playing early on and playing now.” 

Peja Stojakovic had 26 points and seven rebounds for Sacramento, which leads the NBA with a 42-17 record, but lost its second straight game. Chris Webber had 24 points and eight rebounds. 

“We made a run in the fourth, but we couldn’t get the loose balls or make the key shots,” Webber said. “Pippen was tremendous and made huge plays on both ends of the court. Pip is the most underrated player in the game. If we had him, we’d win the championship.” 

In other NBA games, Philadelphia beat Boston 100-94; Atlanta defeated Memphis 95-76; and Utah topped Denver 100-82. 

The Blazers pulled away at the end of the third quarter with a 15-5 run that included five points in a nine-second span. 

Damon Stoudamire drove the lane and made a shot high off the glass for two of his 16 points. Pippen then stole the inbounds pass, stepped back and hit a 3-pointer. 

“Tonight was one of those games where we needed to make it a statement game,” Pippen said. “We can compete with some of the best teams out there.” 

Following a timeout by the Kings, Wells stole the ball and went the length of the court for a dunk. 

Portland led 83-69 by the end of the quarter and the Kings never seriously threatened again. 

“I don’t know what Maurice did to those guys, but they are a different team,” Kings guard Bobby Jackson said. “Pippen was incredible, and we didn’t defend well enough to get back in the game.” 

Rasheed Wallace scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half, and reserve Ruben Patterson scored 12 points for Portland. 

“We did not defend them well enough to win the game,” Kings coach Rick Adelman said. “They beat us off the dribble, they hit open outside shots. They took advantage of mistakes we made.” 

Led by Stoudamire, who had nine in the first quarter, the Blazers went on a 10-2 run midway through the period. The Kings’ starting five combined to shoot just 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) in the first quarter, while the Blazers shot 56.5 percent at the start. 

Sacramento improved its shooting in the second and rallied within two points with 1:32 left on a 6-0 run. 

Portland’s Shawn Kemp was cleared to play by the NBA following an indefinite suspension — which lasted five games — for violating terms of the league’s anti-drug agreement. He was scoreless in eight minutes. 

Celtics 100, 76ers 94 

Paul Pierce scored 28 points and Antoine Walker added 17 to lead Boston to a win at Philadelphia. 

Allen Iverson, coming off consecutive 40-point performances, scored 28, but missed 22 of 30 shots. 

Boston had lost four straight and 10 of 15. It was the Celtics’ first victory since trading Joe Johnson, Milt Palacio and a first-round pick to Phoenix for Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers. 

Eric Snow and Derrick Coleman each had 16 for the Sixers, who had won three in a row. 

Hawks 95, Grizzlies 76 

Toni Kukoc matched a season high with 24 points, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 23 as Atlanta beat Memphis. 

Memphis has lost eight straight, 10 of 11 and 21 of 24. Dropping to 0-7 in Atlanta, the Grizzlies lowered their road record to 6-26. 

Editor: 

With surprise I read Mr. Cecil's letter in yesterday's Berkeley Daily Planet, that as a career teacher of thirty five years I am being criticized and deemed responsible for implementing management's financial systems.  

I was not management. As a teacher in charge of instructing young people, I,as most teachers do, often dug into my own pocket to supplement an inadequate supplies and curriculum instructional budget.  

Having not been part of the Berkeley educational system for four years it is incomprehensible how I can be blamed for the current financial crises and also be held accountable for fixing it. Public education has woefully been underfunded for years and it is thanks to the voters of Berkeley and the Berkeley Education Foundation that we've been able to offer a richer educational program than most school districts.  

As a citizen of Berkeley since 1957, I do remember that Mr. Cecil has been a consistent opponent in the support of public education being against Berkeley Schools Excellence Program and Measure A which has rebuilt our schools in Berkeley, measures I have supported and will continue to support. Please vote today - we need a change on the Alameda County Board of Education.  

Jacki Fox Ruby 

Berkeley

Tuesday, March 5

Berkeley Folk Dancers  

Salsa Dance Workshop  

7:45 - 9:45 p.m. 

Live Oak Park Recreational Center 

1301 Shattuck Ave. 

With Charlene Van Ness. Dancers of all levels welcomed. BFD members $5, 

non-members $7. 234-2069.  

The Dominican School of  

Philosophy and Theology  

presents the 2002 Aquinas  

Symposium: Aquinas'  

Commentaries on Platonic  

Texts 

7:30 p.m.  

Badè Museum, Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Wayne John Hankey on "Thomas' Neoplatonic Hisotries. 

Free and open to public. 883-2072, mdelp@dspt.edu. 

Institute of Governmental Studies Library 

Join with fellow political junkies to watch the returns and assess the impact of the California primary. We'll be following the results of the Republican governor's race, a potential shift in control of the US House as California elects the largest congressional delegation in the nation, State Assembly and Senate primary contests, and key initiative battles. Expert commentary will be provided, amateur comments are welcome. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/ 

Wednesday, March 6

Draft 2001-2010 Short Range  

Transit Plan 

6 p.m. 

AC Transit Board Room - 2nd Floor 

1600 Franklin St. 

A public hearing before the AC Transit Board of Directors will be held to receive input prior to the adoption of the SRTP. www.actransit.org. 

Healing Mission 

6:45 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

Catholic Lay Missionary John Cojanis from the Diocese of Tucson will be conducting a large Healing Mission—spiritual, emotional and physical—everyone is invited to attend. 526-4811x19. 

Colombia and Drug  

Trafficking 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

One hour lecture by Dr. Luis Felipe Suarez - former Colombian Consul General in Puerto Rico and San Francisco, followed by one hour of questions. A Foreign Policy Association program. $5. 526-2925. 

Germbusters Puppet Show 

2:30 - 3 p.m. 

Hall of Health, Lower Level 

2230 Shattuck Ave.  

Hall of Health staff will perform two short, lively puppet shows about germs, their effects on the body, cleanliness, and proper hand-washing technique. For children ages 3 to 10. 549-1564, www.hallofhealth.org. 

Sight-Singing Classes 

6:30 - 7:20 p.m. 

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church 

6013 Lawton Ave., Oakland 

Intermediate level sight-singing classes, 5 class series, $25 for the series. 465-4199, osc1@mindspring.com. 

Peace Walk and Vigil 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley BART Station 

To demonstrate opposition to war and the U. S. bombing of Afghanistan. www.indymedia.org. 

"Global AIDS Treatment  

Access: Victories won and  

new challenges  

on the horizon" 

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

1797 Madera St. 

A HealthGAP benefit houseparty/reception. Presentations by AIDS Treatment News Editor John James and international AIDS activist Julie Davids plus entertainment. 841-4339, www.healthgap.org. 

Sequencing the Human  

Genome: Prokaryotes 

4:10 p.m. 

International House Auditorium  

2299 Piedmont Ave. 

Public lecture by Dr. J. Craig Venter, chairman of the board for the Institute for Genomic Research. 643-7413, www.grad.berkeley.edu/lectures. 

Transnational Urbanism:  

Locating Globalization 

12:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Berkeley Center for Globalization and Information Technology Spring 2002  

Speaker Series with Michael P. Smith, UC Davis. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/ 

Thursday, March 7

Ancient Cultures of the Indian Himalaya 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Slide presentation by Barbara Sansone through the Kinnaur and Spiti Valley in eastern Himachul Pradesh. 527-4140. 

Resisting the Occupation: Jewish Peace  

Activists in Israel and Palestine 

7 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Seth Schneider and Jerry Geffner were part of a recent American Jewish delegation that removed roadblocks, planted olive trees, monitored checkpoints, and met with Israeli and Palestinian peace organizations. Join them as they share slides and stories from their December trip. $5-10 sliding scale, proceeds benefit Rafah refugees. 301-0842, seth_schneider@yahoo.com. 

Sequencing the Human Genome: Eukaryotes 

4:10 p.m. 

International House Auditorium  

2299 Piedmont Ave. 

Public lecture by Dr. J. Craig Venter, chairman of the board for the Institute for Genomic Research. 643-7413, www.grad.berkeley.edu/lectures. 

Friday, March 8

International Women’s Day 

1 - 2:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Music, history, and speakers.  

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Celebrating International Women’s Day 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Theatre  

2640 College Ave. 

International Women's Day celebration with Suheir Hammad, poet and author of "First Writing Since" and "Born Palestinian, Born Black." This event is 

presented by the Arab Women's Solidarity Association and Women of Color 

Resource Center. All are welcome to both the reception at 6 p.m. and the 

program at 7 p.m. $10 - $30, sliding scale. 845-8542, www.coloredgirls.org. 

Berkeley Critical Mass Ninth Birthday Ride 

5:30 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART 

Roll through the streets with glee to celebrate the ninth 

birthday of the monthly Berkeley Critical Mass ride. Party follows. http://www.bclu.org/couch/. 

Men Considering Serving in the  

Roman Catholic church as a  

priest or brother 

9 p.m. 

Precious Blood Mission House  

2800 Milvia 

An Evening of Dialogue and Discernment for men who are considering serving in the Roman Catholic church as a priest or brother. RSVP to Rev. Gary M. Luiz, 848-1053. 

Saturday, March 9

Train for the Eco-Challenge 

2 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Liz Caldwell and Barry Siff, veteran members of Team REI-Salomon, with a slide presentation on their recent Eco-Challenge events in New Zealand and Borneo. They will discuss how to train for a competition, select team members and prevent injury. 527-4140. 

Sunday, March 10

Storytelling Women 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Live Oak Center, Social Hall 

1301 Shattuck Ave. 

Women tellers telling about women who inspire their lives. 4 storytellers and a musician. Part of the annual women’s and girls’ tea party and storytelling ceremony held in Codornices Park. $30 suggested. 841-6612. 

The Labor Movement, Democracy  

and the Political Vacuum 

noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

411 28th St., Oakland 

Presentation by Steve Zeltzer. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Monday, March 11

The Science Behind Global Warming,  

and How You Can Reduce Your Impact 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

University Ave. and Bonar St. 

Susan Ode, Berkeley Energy Commission, will provide an update on the science and implications of global warming for the world, plus a practical list of actions you can incorporate in your life to protect the global climate and improve the quality of your life. 981-5435, energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Odyssey of Conflict and Odyssey of Mastery-- 

Polanyi, Pirsig, Zen, and the Art of Knowing 

3:30 - 5 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion, Mudd 206 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Lecture and discussion presented by Allen Dyer, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at East Tennessee State University, also former chair of the ethics committee of the American Psychiatric Association. Free and open to the public. 849-8285. 

Learning from The History of Government 

noon 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Positive Political Theory Seminar with Roger Myerson, University of Chicago. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/. 

Tuesday, March 12

An Evening with Numfundo Walaza:  

The Burden of Forgiveness 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

An evening with Numfundo Walaza, director of the Trauma Center for Survivors of Violence and Torture in Capetown, South Africa. Walaza will talk about "The Burden of Forgiveness: Reflections from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of South Africa." $15. 204-0720, mkmorrison@cdsp.edu. 

Wednesday, March 13

Trees Forum 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

Amahra Hicks of USFS, and Jeff Romm of UCB discuss "Just Forests Initiative: Faith-based Activism for Public Land." Free and open to the public. www.gtu.edu/StudServ/TREES. 

Bad roads and mind-numbing traffic. Berkeley residents know them well. Today, they will join with millions of voters statewide to decide whether Proposition 42 provides an answer. 

The proposition would put a constitutional amendment in place dedicating all state gas taxes, starting in 2008, to transportation projects. Currently, gas tax revenues go into the general fund, and can be used for a variety of purposes, although the legislature has elected to dedicate the gas tax to transportation projects from 2003 to 2008. Proposition 42 would make the policy permanent. 

Supporters, including construction companies, unions and transit agencies, say the measure would ease a backlog of transportation projects and remove a temptation to spend the money elsewhere. 

“The money tends to get diverted here this year, and there next year,” said Nick DeLuca, spokesman for Yes on 42. “It’s a real world mechanism for delivering the money.” 

But opponents, including teachers and health care advocates, say the measure would divert funds from education, health care and other vital social services.  

They add that Proposition 42, by restricting the use of gas taxes, would limit the legislature’s ability to react to changing circumstances. 

“It ties the legislature’s hands,” said State Assemblywoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley). “When we have budget problems, like we do today, we need as much flexibility as possible.” 

But Peter Snyder, vice president of BART’s Board of Directors, which has endorsed the measure, says it is reasonable for voters to expect that the gas tax fund transportation projects. 

“If that’s what the people of California want to do, then I have no problem with it,” he said. 

DeLuca adds that there is flexibility built into the measure, noting that the legislature could overturn the amendment for a year with a two-thirds vote and the governor’s approval. 

DeLuca said the measure would address “a colossal unmet need,” citing a December study, commissioned largely by the construction industry, which rates California roads the worst in the nation. 

If passed, the measure would commit 20 percent of funds to cities for road repair and maintenance, 20 percent to counties for the same purpose and 40 percent to the State Transportation Improvement Plan, a five-year blueprint for highway and mass transit projects. Gas tax revenues are projected at $1.4 billion in 2008. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington said the measure does not allocate enough for mass transit, and argued that it diverts money from other pressing needs. 

“How can you simultaneously tell transportation folks you’re going to get many, many millions of extra dollars, and not take it from somewhere else?,” he asks. 

“We need to make sure the roads are safe,” added Fred Glass, communications director for the California Federation of Teachers. “But to me, that’s not as high a priority as making sure the children of the state get a good education.” 

But DeLuca says the measure, if it were in place this year, would allocate only a tiny percentage of the state’s budget to transportation. 

“It’s not something that will pull the plug on state programs,” he said. 

According to a Feb. 21-Feb. 25 Field Poll, 61 percent of voters favored Proposition 42 and 23 percent opposed it. Sixteen percent were undecided.

SAN DIEGO — The Gonzaga Bulldogs are going back to the NCAA tournament on an all-time high, thanks to a breathtaking shooting display by Dan Dickau. 

Dickau scored 19 of his 29 points during a 32-10 run and the No. 6 Bulldogs rallied to beat top-seeded Pepperdine 96-90 Monday night for their fourth straight West Coast Conference tournament title and automatic NCAA bid. 

Dickau, the conference player of the year and tournament MVP, and fellow guard Blake Stepp took control during a span of 7 minutes, 30 seconds. The Zags (29-3) went from a 63-56 deficit to an 88-73 lead with 4:18 left. 

Dickau started the run when he grabbed a rebound and put it in with 11:45 left. He punctuated it with four 3-pointers, including a four-point play.

Editor 

Today is election day and the last time to respond to yesterday's letter regarding Jacki Fox Ruby.  

It is completely inaccurate to claim that Jacki Fox Ruby, in her former role as Berkeley Federation of Teachers' President, should have or could have “inform[ed] Berkeley's citizens” about the “ever deepening fiscal mess” of the Berkeley Unified School District. Her role, as BFT negotiator and President, was to advocate for the best possible compensation for her constituents, i.e., the Berkeley teachers, and to call attention to working conditions, class size inequities, and administrative process, things which benefit all our children at every school site.  

It is not in the purview of a Union representative to disclose to or inform the public about District fiscal policy. 

It was, and still is, the role of the District, particularly the Superintendent and the elected Board, to make adjustments in the budget to ensure that we can pay our teachers the compensation they deserve, as well as to ensure a balanced budget and to inform the public of the state of District finances. 

Jacki Fox Ruby has been an effective representative for the BFT as well as a consistent advocate for classroom resources. For that she has earned my support. 

John Selawsky 

Director, Berkeley School Board 

Berkeley  

Last week, the city approved an agreement with University of California, Berkeley to dampen the impact of the upcoming Northeast Quadrant Project. The university is thrilled. But the city’s political leadership is not. 

“I think it should have been stronger,” said Mayor Shirley Dean. “Unfortunately it wasn’t.” 

Under the agreement UC Berkeley will, among other things, provide $35,000 to fund local transit programs, add $10,000 to its annual sewer payments to the city and replace six Hearst Ave. tennis courts that will be converted to parking spaces as part of the project. 

The Northeast Quadrant venture, scheduled to begin this summer with utilities work, will include the replacement of two university buildings and the retrofit of three others, adding an estimated 325,000 square feet of research, office and teaching space to the campus. 

The City Council set the stage for the settlement with a Feb. 19 decision, in closed session, to accept the university’s environmental impact report on the project, rather than challenge it in court. 

Councilmember Linda Maio said she made a motion, seconded by Councilmember Kriss Worthington, to sue the university over the report. The council, she said, rejected the motion. 

“I thought, strategically, this was the project to sue on,” Maio said, arguing that a lawsuit would have prompted the university to offer the city more in its mitigation package. “A lawsuit is a hassle. You might get more if you hassle.” 

Other Councilmembers declined to discuss the closed session vote. But Councilmember Betty Olds suggested the settlement is the best the city could expect, given that the university, as a state entity, falls outside the city’s jurisdiction. 

“I’m sure some will try to spin it that the city got a lot out of the deal,” countered Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “But if you look at the list, there’s not a lot there for the employees, or the students, or the city.”  

Worthington said an ongoing concern is the university’s reluctance to provide its employees with a free transit pass, similar to the “Ecopass” the city provides its staff. 

“The single biggest thing the University of California could do is the Ecopass for its employees,” Worthington said, arguing that greater use of public transit would reduce traffic in the area. “But they are declining to seriously discuss it.” 

Worthington said the university’s offer of $35,000 for transit is inadequate to launch a significant Ecopass program. 

“I’d say it’s a start,” responded Marie Felde, spokesperson for the university. She added that transit passes may not be the best way to reduce car trips to and from campus, and said the issue needs more study. 

“The goal here is to reduce auto traffic,” Felde said. “However it could be most effectively done is what everyone wants.”  

After heavy lobbying by neighbors and City Councilmembers the university agreed to replace the tennis courts, perched atop a Hearst Ave. parking lot and frequently used by the public. 

The agreement does not specify a location for the replacement courts, but Felde said they will likely end up on the southside of campus. 

Dean is unhappy with the proposed shift in location. “They should have left that alone,” she said. 

Olds said she is looking for a northside plot for at least two or three of the courts. 

“We’re certainly not going to give up,” Olds said. “We’re going to find a place.” 

Councilmembers reached by the Planet agreed, uniformly, that the university did not offer enough to mitigate the impact of the project on the city’s sewer system.  

Currently, under an agreement that will expire in 2005, the university pays $250,000 per year in sewer costs. Under the new settlement, UC Berkeley will up the payment to $260,000 in 2005. 

Felde said the Northeast Quadrant project will increase campus square footage by 4%, noting that the $10,000 jump reflects that increase. 

EL SEGUNDO — At this time last season, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were taking verbal shots at each other. This year, they’re taking physical shots at guys on the other team. 

“It’s better to fight against the opposition than it is to fight amongst ourselves,” Bryant said Monday. “Last year, we were fighting amongst ourselves, but we pulled through just fine.” 

Bryant and O’Neal are buddies now, and each has launched a haymaker at an opposing player this season — and each failed to land solidly. 

Bryant threw a roundhouse right at Indiana’s Reggie Miller on Friday night, drawing a two-game suspension and $12,500 fine from the NBA. Miller also was suspended two games and fined $10,000. O’Neal threw a wild right at Brad Miller, then with Chicago, in January and was suspended for three games. 

Editor: 

Being a staunch advocate of public transit, I would normally vote in favor of a thing like Prop 42. But I'm going to vote NO, because I think my trust is being abused.. 

The legislature has already passed a bill to switch the gas tax to all-transportation. The revenue switch doesn't raise taxes, but it sure does steal away revenue already allocated to non-transportation. 

It could be very disruptive. Prop 42 wants us to vote in 2002 to make it permanent in 2008. 

I say wait until closer to 2008, after we know all the consequences. 

This bus rider is voting NO on Prop 42. 

Steve Geller 

Berkeley

The City Council voted last night 8-1 in favor of the redistricting plan drafted by the subcommittee on Monday. In the two-hour special meeting, councilmembers grumbled about boundaries, but eventually that compromise had to be the order of the day.  

The boundaries of District 4, represented by Dona Spring, the sole dissenter, were the main points of contention. Robert and Barbara Mishell came to protest being moved from District 4 into District 6. 

L.A. Wood charged the council with being insensitive to the communities of interest in District 4, despite all their talk about trying to keep neighborhoods together. 

“I find when you’re talking about neighborhoods, you’re really talking about voting blocs,” he said. 

Spring thanked her constituents for showing up and explained her own revisions to District 4 in the subcommittee plan. Her proposal, one of three revisions submitted, would restore the Oxford tract on the west, shift several blocks south of Vine into District 5 on the north and trade a block on Francisco for all of Ohlone Park on the east. 

Rent Board Commissioner Paul Hogarth’s revision similarly tried to keep District 4 truer to its current form, but traded the hilly area at the northern end of Spruce for the Oxford tract. Since Councilmember Miriam Hawley had fought so hard for those blocks at Monday’s subcommittee meeting, few on the council were willing to change the border between 5 and 6. 

At one point in the evening, though, the council seemed willing to grant Spring’s main request for the Oxford tract. When Spring seemed unwilling to give up any other blocks in exchange, however, the council gave up trying to reach a unanimous decision. 

The council was also friendly to the students who tried to bring more students into District 7 though they eventually decided not to incorporate the two amendments suggested by the Associated Students of the University of California. 

ASUC Vice President of External Affairs Josh Fryday came to register student discontent not only with the existing plans, but also with the process. 

This controversy made clear that a process controlled by incumbents will never change, he said. While it was not necessarily the fault of the City Council because they were bound by an unjust charter, Fryday insisted, “The process is unfair and undemocratic.” 

Spring tried to soothe Fryday. “Every councilmember up here is trying to pitch to you. That must say something to you.” 

But hours of wrangling over the borders of District 4 left the councilmembers with little energy to incorporate any changes at all to the subcommittee recommendation. 

“I thought when we approved the Cohen plan [on Feb. 19], that was the end of it,” said Margaret Breland. “I’m not one to sit to 2 o’clock. I’m going to leave.” 

Other councilmembers murmured their support and Mayor Shirley Dean moved two motions to vote. 

The first motion, proposed by Kriss Worthington, would have overlaid Spring’s plan and the first ASUC amendment onto the subcommittee draft. It failed 7-2. 

The second motion, proposed by Polly Armstrong, to adopt the subcommittee plan without any revisions, carried.  

Editor: 

I hope that every Berkeley Daily Planet reader will VOTE TUESDAY, and will pay attention to who is buying the Prop. 42 ads. Looks to me like the highway lobby is trying to lock up our gas taxes, with a mere 20% allocated for public transit. This will only exacerbate Bay Area traffic and air pollution. VOTE NO on Prop. 42. 

Charlene M. Woodcock 

Berkeley

SAN FRANCISCO — Two Oakland men pleaded innocent to marijuana cultivation charges Monday at a federal court arraignment in San Francisco in which they were told of stiff mandatory sentences if they are convicted. 

Edward Rosenthal, 57, and James Halloran, 61, are among four men who were arrested in a Bay Area marijuana sweep last month and indicted by a federal grand jury last week. 

Rosenthal, the author of several books and a column about marijuana growing, is one of three men allegedly associated with the Harm Reduction Center, a medical marijuana club in San Francisco. 

Halloran is accused in a separate indictment of growing marijuana in an Oakland warehouse. 

U.S. Magistrate Joseph Spero told Rosenthal today that he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted of a count of conspiring to grow more than 1,000 marijuana plants. 

Rosenthal also faces charges of growing more than 100 plants, which carries a mandatory five-year term, and maintaining premises in Oakland to grow marijuana, with a possible 20-year sentence. 

Halloran was told during the arraignment that he faces a mandatory 20-year sentence if found guilty of growing marijuana within 1,000 feet of a playground. He is also accused of growing more than 1,000 plants, which carries a mandatory 10-year sentence, and maintaining marijuana premises, with a possible 20-year term. 

Halloran said outside of court that he is “staggered” by the charges and possible sentences. Halloran, who said he is a hepatitis patient who needs marijuana for medical reasons, said, “I never hurt anybody. I'm a health giver.” 

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on the case. 

Spero ordered Rosenthal to return to the court of U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco on March 20 for setting of a trial date. Halloran was instructed to appear before U.S. District Judge Saundra Armstrong in Oakland on March 19. 

Both men are free on $500,000 bail. 

To the Berkeley Community, 

We have a 60-year-old legacy at BHS, and we may be throwing it away.  

A budget crisis is not an excuse for poor policy decisions. A financial crisis should be managed with cuts that we can recover from when we have a better financial situation rather then solving it with cuts which will leave our programs crippled for life. 

There are many things about BHS that could stand improvement, there is no doubt about that, but there are also great things at BHS. We have a great diversity of offerings for our students, some world class teachers and some compelling programs. We have a science program that provides outstanding results, not only for the elite student but for students at all levels. 

“My seriously at-risk son found himself as a student in double period science. He learned to do homework, built study habits and started getting As in double period science. Before this class, he was headed in the wrong direction.” -Parent of a Sophomore 

We held a public forum on February 21, 2002, sponsored by the PTA Council to discuss the affects of budget cuts on the high school. We drafted a document which represents the consensus of the forum, which you will find below. 

This document goes beyond complaining about the drastic cuts that are being made and provides a real, reasonable way in which we can save actual dollars, provide more options for our students and compromise the science program without destroying the great value it provides — opportunity for all the students and a little extra help for those who are struggling. 

The current cuts will affect the science program disproportionately and cut about 25% of our science teachers at the high school. If you survey all the districts in the country and ask them what their biggest recruiting challenge is, they will tell you that it is math and science teachers.  

We have some of the finest science teachers and we are thinking about firing them and dismantling a program with a 60 year track record for success with all students, not just the best and brightest. 

You can help.  

Here are a few suggestions: 

1. Add your name to those who support the proposal. If you have web access, simply to to www.berkeleypta.org, read the proposal and send in your response. You can also send email to ddm@well.com with your name, who you are (such as “parent with an 8th grader at King” or “community member”) and that you support the proposal. (If you do not have web access, you can call Derick Miller and leave a message with the same information (510)848-4000, but if possible, please use email). 

2. Write your opinion and publish it or send a copy to ddm@well.com. 

3. Talk to your friends and associates with children in the district and convince them that it is important to take action. 

4. Come to the board of education meeting on February 27, 2002 at the Old City Hall in the City Council Chambers and express your opinion. I suggest arriving between 7 and 7:15. Request and submit a "green card" for an opportunity to speak. Speakers are allowed 3 minutes. 

Our children's educational opportunities are being compromised and there are only a couple days in which to act. 

Derick Miller 

President 

Berkeley PTA Council 

Gimmick generates genuine suspence 

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — In a publicity gimmick that has generated genuine suspense, four Malaysians competing in an endurance test have lodged themselves in a car outside a shopping mall, battling boredom, body odor and bothersome pedestrians. 

The radio-sponsored contest, which entered its second week Monday, forces strangers to live together in a car parked in public for as long as their sanity holds. The last person to leave gets the vehicle. 

After seven days, Malaysians are now wondering who will budge first — the glamorous law student, the affable driving instructor, the plucky housewife, or the enthusiastic salesman? 

“It gets tougher everyday,” said contestant Wong Hsin Ee, 21, gobbling her breakfast of rice in the car. “The first week, we just ate and slept. Now, it’s a miracle we’re still here. I’ve missed all my classes.” 

Monitored round-the-clock since Feb. 25 by security cameras and guards, the four contestants are only allowed out of the car once every three hours for 15 minutes to head for a nearby restroom. 

Despite a current hot spell, the rules also forbid them to shower or shave. Once every two days, they can brush their teeth and change clothes, except for their underwear. 

Magazines, mobile phones and other entertainment are banned. The contestants are only allowed to listen to the car radio, which is constantly tuned to the network organizing the challenge. 

Slurp Fest 

COUPEVILLE, Wash.— On your mark, get set, slurp. 

Andy Elf won the heart of seafood lovers everywhere by gobbling 80 freshly steamed mussels in a minute during the 16th annual Penn Cover Mussel Festival. 

Thousands of visitors sampled chowder from nine restaurants at the weekend festival in this town on Whidbey Island about 45 miles north of Seattle. 

Seven eaters put their innards on the line for the contest Sunday at The Captain Whidbey Inn overlooking the cove where the succulent mollusks, typically no bigger than half the size of their Mediterranean and Maine cousins, are harvested. 

Elf was nothing if not confident before the contest began. 

“Andy’s my name, and mussel’s my game,” he said in a pre-slurp interview with The Herald of Everett. “I’m going to crawl right inside that shell and become one with the mussels.” 

His effort won him a $50 gift certificate to the Inn and a Mussel Muncher sweat shirt. He said he would be back to defend his title next year. 

Pet strollers hit market 

ELKHART, Ind. — Taking your precious bundle of joy out for a spin in a carriage isn’t just for babies anymore. 

Jim Montgomery has designed a stroller for proud pet owners who want to take their favorite ferret or cat along for a jaunt. 

Montgomery originally came up with the idea when his wife wanted to take her cats along on her walks while recuperating from surgery. 

Because cats don’t do well on leashes, Montgomery created the Kitty Kart. Now, the contraption also has become popular among ferret owners. 

LOS ANGELES — Word that the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese has removed as many as a dozen priests involved in sex abuse cases was hailed Monday as a victory for people fighting pastoral sex abuse. 

“This was our vision,” said Katherine K. Freberg, an Irvine attorney who won a $5.2 million settlement last year for a man who said he was sexually abused as a teen-ager. Part of the settlement with Ryan DiMaria required the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Diocese of Orange to adopt “zero tolerance” policies toward sexual abuse in the clergy. 

Last month, Cardinal Roger Mahony, who heads the Los Angeles Archdiocese, promised that any allegation would be investigated and any abusers removed rather than reassigned to other parishes. 

The Los Angeles Times, citing anonymous sources within the archdiocese, said Monday that Mahony has begun doing just that, forcing six to 12 priests to leave. Those forced out were involved in sexual abuse cases dating as far back as 10 years, the Times said. 

Archdiocese officials refused to confirm or deny the report. 

Mahony “wants to let his pastoral statement speak for itself,” archdiocese spokesman Tod M. Tamberg told The Associated Press. 

He added that archdiocese officials do discuss removals of priests with members of the parishes where the clergymen worked. 

In a related matter, the Rev. Michael Pecharich, announced Sunday he had been forced to resign from an Orange County parish for having a relationship with a teen-age boy 19 years ago. 

Pecharich, founding pastor of the San Francisco Solano Church in Rancho Santa Margarita, apologized personally to his parishioners. 

The 56-year-old priest was asked to leave last week by the Bishop of Orange, the Most Rev. Tod D. Brown. His case had been known to church officials since 1996. 

Dioceses across the country have been under pressure to rid themselves of any priests with a history of sexual misconduct following a scandal that erupted last month in the Boston Archdiocese. 

Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston declared a zero-tolerance policy for abuse as a result of the case of defrocked priest John Geoghan, who was shuttled from parish to parish as allegations against him surfaced. 

Geoghan, who is accused of molesting 130 children, is serving a prison sentence for fondling a 10-year-old boy and faces more charges. 

The cost of past, pending and future sexual abuse claims against the Boston Archdiocese could reach $100 million. 

Cardinal Law reluctantly gave law enforcement officials the names of 80 priests who had been accused in the past of abusing children. His action was followed by similar disclosures in Philadelphia. 

Tamberg would not say whether the Los Angeles Archdiocese had given information to law enforcement authorities, but he noted that state law requires clergy, teachers and other people who work with children to report child abuse. 

Freberg said the archdiocese should go further to fight sexual abuse by publicly disclosing the names of the priests involved. 

She also objected to the priests Mahony removed being given what the Times reported were generous severance packages. 

“What company — other than Enron — pays known criminals a generous severance package?” she asked. 

LOS ANGELES — John D. Rockefeller took 25 years to make his first billion. Gary Winnick needed only 18 months. 

Yet nearly five years after he took bold steps to create the world’s most advanced fiber optic network, Winnick is at the center of a spectacular implosion of shareholder wealth. 

The descent of Global Crossing Ltd., of which Winnick was founder and chairman, was just as precipitous as the ride up. Losing almost $50 billion in market capital, it became the fourth-largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy on record on Jan. 28. 

Winnick, 54, cashed in beforehand, selling $734 million in stock before the company hit bottom. 

Claiming they were duped, shareholders have filed more than two dozen lawsuits, claiming among other things that executives inflated financial results. Some people believe Winnick is trying to profit from his company’s collapse. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Global Crossing’s accounting practices. The FBI has also launched a probe. 

Winnick declined to be interviewed for this article. But the picture of him that emerges from court records, financial documents and interviews is of a man who luxuriated in wealth and who had a propensity for bending the rules. 

His company’s shareholders are angry. 

“If that guy doesn’t go to jail, there’s no justice,” said John Burat, a 42-year-old former truck driver in Conshohocken, Pa., who said he poured his full $31,000 Social Security disability payment into Global Crossing stock last year. “This is my kid’s education. It just makes me sick to my stomach.” 

Michael Sitrick, Winnick’s spokesman, said his client has not broken any laws and that all his stock sales were done in compliance with company rules and federal and state laws. 

“Lots of shareholders have made lots of money through Global Crossing,” he said. 

Winnick was an investment banker and had no significant experience in telecommunications in 1997 when he convinced some of the biggest players in the business he could connect the world with a 100,000-mile fiber optic network. He quickly raised more than $700 million and threw in $15 million of his own money to turn his vision into a working company, and Global Crossing went public in 1998. 

“He thinks big, always has,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who has known Winnick for some 20 years. “Even when he didn’t have money, he didn’t want to do the conventional thing.” 

Winnick made headlines when he paid about $65 million in cash for a 15-bedroom mansion in Bel-Air in September 2000. And although his company is bankrupt, Winnick is pushing ahead with $15 million worth of renovations at the estate. 

“Mr. Winnick is deeply regretful that the company could not complete a restructuring without filing Chapter 11,” Sitrick explained about the expenditure. “He had personal wealth before his involvement and investment in Global Crossing,” 

Winnick’s enthusiasm for real estate extends to Global Crossing’s executive offices in Beverly Hills. His investment firm, Pacific Capital Group, spent $41.5 million in 1998 to buy the historic former MCA building and another $9 million on renovations. 

The surroundings are a far cry from Winnick’s modest upbringing in Roslyn, N.Y. His father, Arnold, worked in food services and started his own company, which went bankrupt. He died of a heart attack when his son was an 18-year-old student at C.W. Post University. 

Winnick graduated with a degree in business and economics an in 1972, joined Burnham and Co. as a trainee broker. He rose to become a top aide to junk bond financier Michael Milken at what became Drexel Burnham Lambert but left to start his own investment firm before Milken and others were indicted on federal racketeering and fraud charges. 

In 1999, Winnick was named by the Los Angeles Business Journal as Los Angeles’ richest man, worth an estimated $6 billion on paper. 

He spread the wealth around. His architect, rabbi and maid all reaped handsome gains. 

He also has donated or pledged more than $100 million to favorite causes. The Wiesenthal Center doesn’t expect Global Crossing’s troubles to interfere with Winnick’s $40 million pledge to build a Jerusalem branch with his name on it. 

Winnick’s fame gained him access to the highest levels of society. During Global Crossing’s heyday, Winnick told London’s Daily Telegraph that fielding calls from the president of the United States and Buckingham Palace was like “an out of body experience” for him. 

He loved cutting big deals, but they’ve brought Global Crossing scrutiny and criticism. 

In 1999, his upstart firm paid $8.1 billion in stock for the nation’s fifth-largest long distance company, Frontier Corp., of Rochester, N.Y. The following year, Global Crossing sold Frontier’s local calling business to Citizens Communications of Stamford, Conn., for $3.7 billion in badly needed cash. 

Winnick and his team tried to keep Frontier’s $700 million pension plan, but state regulators blocked the attempt. 

The rescue plan that Global Crossing presented when it announced it was seeking bankruptcy protection has also raised questions.  

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge set a Sept. 30 trial date in a lawsuit filed by major movie studios against Internet file swapping service StreamCast after declining Monday to dismiss part of the case. 

The defense had sought the dismissal by arguing that the popular swapping program known as Morpheus is capable of more than merely letting users swap music, video and other work protected by studio copyrights. 

The attorney representing StreamCast, which distributes the software, suggested the studios should be targeting the people who use the software to distribute illegal copies of films rather than the software itself. 

U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson allowed the case to proceed, saying the plaintiffs should have time for discovery before any dismissal decision is made. 

Morpheus allows individual users to swap photos, music, video and other digital files directly. 

Unlike Napster, which has been shut down after the major record studios sued for copyright infringement, StreamCast does not keep track of who is on the system or what they are swapping. 

Movie studios contend that Morpheus and similar Internet programs allow users to share bootlegged copies of full-length motion pictures. 

The attorney representing the studios asked the judge for time to prove the connection between the software and its use. 

“We are not opposed to peer-to-peer technology if the content on there is proper,” said David Kendall, an attorney for the plaintiffs.  

There was no clashing last night, it was all smiles and laughter at the Berkeley Repertory Theater’s hosting of Culture Clash where Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, was making one of her last public appearances before tomorrow’s primary election. 

Lee, the incumbent in the ninth district, faces civil engineer Kevin Greene in Tuesday’s primary. 

Lee started receiving national attention on September 14 when she voted against H. J. Res. 64, which gave President George Bush the authority to use military force in response to the terrorist attacks. Much of the attention was negative, Lee has received upwards of 700,000 pieces of derogatory mail, including death threats, directly related to her stance against taking military action. 

Recently, especially with strikes in Afghanistan escalating and allies showing signs of leeriness, her critics are faltering and supporters are rallying, her campaign war chest for this campaign is twice as hefty as the previous election. 

“People have been really supportive all the way through it,” Lee said, adding that in addition to death supports she received numerous emails applauding her lone vote.  

“But now as I watch Sen. Daschle and Byrd, they are now asking my questions. What I said one night when the vote came down on this resolution is that it was so vague. And now I think, especially after the axis of evil speech, that Congress is beginning to realize how much power we gave him.” 

Just days ago it was reported that the defense department could not predict how long the strikes will last or how much they will cost in the end. 

Lee said the resolution was written that way, “open-ended and broad.” 

“And I think people see that, it’s just that fear gets in the way,” she added. 

There was no one for Lee to fear last night. She was surrounded by supportive voters applauding her for bravery and thanking her for the stand she took against military action. 

“When this all came down a lot of people just got depressed. They felt helpless because they thought there was nothing for them to do. It was good to have you as an example,” Elise Fried of San Francisco said to Lee. 

Also on hand with words of support was longtime friend and actor Roger Guenveur Smith — most recently noted for a critically acclaimed one-man play about Huey P. Newton. It was showing February 13th on PBS, but will continue to sporadically throughout the year. 

A Berkeley-native, Smith said Lee was the most progressive of the National Progressive Caucus and a true friend to the people. 

Lee’s signature concerns have been health care and education. She’s also worked on the International Relations Committee and the Financial Services Committee (Subcommittees on Housing and International Monetary Policy). In addition, she played a key role in Congress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, helping to secure more than $5 million in funding in Alameda County. 

She has received key endorsements for this primary and preliminary pollings indicate she pulled out early as the front-runner, despite predictions that her lone “No” vote on Sept.l4th was going to haunt her come election time. 

“But I say until every vote has been cast and every ballot counted we are still going to be hard at work,” Lee said. “Out there talking to people, knocking on doors, continuing the grassroots campaign we’ve always done.” 

But things haven’t been so cordial for the Congresswoman.  

David Horowitz, editor-in-chief, of “FrontPage” even called her an anti-American communist. Horowitz, in an essay entitled An Enemy Within,” alleged that Lee supports America’s enemies and actively collaborates with them.  

He recalled meeting her early in her career with the late Huey Newton. Horowitz referred to Newton as the infamous "Minister of Defense" for the Black Panther Party, a gangster at war with America, and referred to Lee as his undercover agent in local government. 

Horowitz, a self-proclaimed conservative libertarian, ultimately suggested that Lee’s behavior was similar to treason. 

But other than the ultra conservatives like Horowitz, some political commentators are beginning to point to Lee’s lone voice back in September, saying that perhaps she had a point. 

Editor: 

Jackie Fox Ruby should withdraw immediately from the County School Board Race, Berkeley's ever deepening fiscal mess didn't happen overnight. Career employee Jackie Fox Ruby was either incapable of understanding the developing mess or she chose not to inform Berkeley's citizens!  

The revelations of overpaying staff and payment to former staff, are events Jackie Fox Ruby should have known were wrong.  

It is bad enough that Berkeley has to focus on fixing the mess so that education will again be the focus of our schools.  

We don't need to send Berkeley's fiscal and management diseases to the County School Board. Jerry Wiggins has been critical that Berkeley's Schools were not doing enough for our children, especially those at risk. This attitude coupled with his experience makes him the best hope for all of our children and therefore the only candidate worthy of your vote on March 5. 

John Cecil 

Berkeley

Saturday, March 2

The 2002 White Elephant  

Sale 

9 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

White Elephant Warehouse 

333 Lancaster St., Oakland 

The 42nd annual White Elephant Sale, benefiting the Oakland Museum. Free. http://www.museumca.org/events/elephant.html. 

Outdoor Cross Training and  

Conditioning Basics 

2 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

REI’s Kristy Ruocco will draw on her experiences as a certified yoga instructor and nutritionist as she discusses the fundamentals of outdoor cross training and conditioning - different types of workouts, stretching, nutrition and goal setting. 527-4140. 

The Great Rummage Sale 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society 

2700 Ninth St. 

The Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society is a “no-kill” animal shelter whose 

mission is to place adoptable dogs and cats in suitable, loving homes. 

Our Great Rummage Sale, held the first and third Saturday of each month, 

helps provide funds toward the operation of our shelter. clamata@berkeleyhumane.org. 

Sunday, March 3

Shaping a Just U.S. Policy in  

the Middle East 

2 - 7:30 p.m. 

International House 

2299 Piedmont Ave. 

Join Bay Area peace, social justice and faith-based organizations for a two- day conference focusing on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, Iraq, Afghanistan and the impact these policies on civil rights and democracy in the U.S. 415-565-0201 x26, www.afsc.org/wagingpeace. 

The Ancient Trees Initiative 

noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

411 28th Street  

The Old Growth Tree Initiative of Northern California is a statewide measure that will be submitted directly to California voters in the November 2002 election if 420,000 or more Californians sign the petitions. 451-5818, www.ancienttrees.org. 

The Berkshire’s Second 

Anniversary Celebration 

2 - 4 p.m. 

The Berkshire Assisted Living 

2235 Sacramento St. 

The public is invited. Tours available. 841-4844. 

English Ceilidh Dancing 

7 p.m. 

Grace North Church  

2138 Cedar St.  

Family friendly, no partner needed, all dances taught and called to live music. $10. 650-365-2913, http://www.bacds.org. 

Hadassah Donor Brunch 

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

H's Lordship's Restaurant 

Berkeley Marina 

Ariel Levite, former head of the Bureau of International Security in Israel and military scholar, speaks about Israeli Security. teachme99@attbi.com. 

Monday, March 4

Low- and No-Tech  

Approaches to Household 

Energy Conservation 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

University Ave. and Bonar St. 

How to cut your energy bills by 50-90 percent with lots of diligence and little money, by Rueben Deumling, Berkeley Energy Commission. 981-5435, energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

The Dominican School of  

Philosophy 

and Theology presents the 2002 Aquinas Symposium: 

Aquinas' Commentaries on Platonic Texts 

7:30 p.m.  

Badè Museum, Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Fran O'Rourke on "Unity in Aquinas' Neoplatonic Commentaries"; Vivian Boland, O.P., on "Thinking About Good: Aquinas on Divine Names IV, De Hebdomadibus & Nicomachean Ethics I"; and Mark Damien Delp on "Abstract and Concrete Names: Logic and Metaphysics in Aquinas' Platonic Commentaries." Free and open to public. 883-2072, mdelp@dspt.edu. 

Economics of Transition  

Seminar 

noon 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Wei Li, University of Virginia, "Great Leap Forward or Backward? Anatomy of a Central Planning Disaster." 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/ 

Tuesday, March 5

Berkeley Folk Dancers  

Salsa Dance Workshop  

7:45 - 9:45 p.m. 

Live Oak Park Recreational Center 

1301 Shattuck Ave. 

With Charlene Van Ness. Dancers of all levels welcomed. BFD members $5, 

non-members $7. 234-2069.  

The Dominican School of  

Philosophy and Theology  

presents the 2002 Aquinas  

Symposium: Aquinas'  

Commentaries on Platonic  

Texts 

7:30 p.m.  

Badè Museum, Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Wayne John Hankey on "Thomas' Neoplatonic Hisotries. 

Free and open to public. 883-2072, mdelp@dspt.edu. 

Institute of Governmental Studies Library 

Join with fellow political junkies to watch the returns and assess the impact of the California primary. We'll be following the results of the Republican governor's race, a potential shift in control of the US House as California elects the largest congressional delegation in the nation, State Assembly and Senate primary contests, and key initiative battles. Expert commentary will be provided, amateur comments are welcome. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/ 

Sharper scores 34, but St. Mary’s falls back in second half 

Despite a huge game from John Sharper, the St. Mary’s Panthers couldn’t hold onto a halftime lead, faltering down the stretch in a 76-70 loss to De La Salle in the North Coast Section Division I championship game at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley. 

Sharper, a senior, scored 22 of his game-high 34 points in the first half, hitting his first five 3-pointers to stake the Panthers to a 38-36 lead after one half. But the Spartans, who won their fourth straight NCS title, came out with a seven-point run to start the second half and never trailed again. 

De La Salle center Rekalin Sims had his way down low, leading the Spartans with 22 points and 12 rebounds. The top-ranked Spartans also got some clutch long-range shooting from Taylor Pena and Matt Schroeder, who scored 15 and 12 points, respectively. 

The Panthers usually cause turnovers in bunches with their pressure defense, but De La Salle calmly advanced the ball through the press all night, committing just eight turnovers in the game. The Spartans used a height advantage to go over the Panthers and got plenty of easy baskets on the break. 

St. Mary’s head coach Jose Caraballo blamed himself for the loss, feeling he hadn’t made the proper adjustments during halftime. 

“(De La Salle head coach Frank) Allocco outcoached me in the second half,” Caraballo said. “He kicked my butt, and I lost this game for us.” 

Allocco’s most important strategy was to limit Sharper after the break, breaking out of his usual all-zone defense. At least one Spartan defender was assigned to Sharper at all times in the second half, holding him to 12 points, six of which came in the game’s final seconds. 

“We tried to make adjustments,” De La Salle coach Frank Allocco said. “(Sharper) was getting a lot of looks and we trying to keep him from getting so many open shots.” 

With Sharper comparatively bottled up, the Panthers couldn’t get things going. Point guard DaShawn Freeman scored 8 of his 12 points in the second half, but big men Chase Moore and Simon Knight combined to score just 13 points in the game after pouring in 34 against Bishop O’Dowd on Friday. 

The loss broke a 21-game winning streak for the Panthers, as well as a 12-game postseason run that included last season’s Division IV state championship. But the narrow loss also proved that Caraballo was correct in moving the team up to Division I this season, as they stood up to one of the state’s top teams and came up just short. 

“This was an important game for us,” Sharper said. “We know now we can play at this level. We got this far, and we can go farther if we play better. We can get these guys next time.” 

The Panthers will get another shot at top competition in the Northern California Regional playoffs. They got the fifth seed as an at-large team and will head to No. 4 Oak Grove, the Central Section winner, on Wednesday at 7:30. De La Salle was awarded the second seed and will face the winner of a Pleasant Valley-Vallejo out-of-bracket matchup. Oakland Tech, the last team to beat both the Panthers and Spartans before Saturday, was given the top seed.

It wasn't so much about donning suffragette sashes at tea parties as picking electric guitars in a bar lined wall-to-wall with Barbie dolls. 

At a Saturday night event at the Stork Club in Oakland, four local bands rocked a house full of hipsters, feminists, fellow travelers and local music aficionados to raise money for Ladyfest Bay Area, a non-profit organization that will put on a five-day festival celebrating women's music, visual and lively arts, and spoken word in July. 

“ We want to create an alternative space for women and women's media outside of the mainstream,” said Cortney Rock, a Cal student who is one of the 25 volunteer organizers. “ No one is creating this space for us and it's stupid to wait for corporate America to do it for us.”  

Though Ladyfests have been happening for two years around the U.S. and in Europe, this summer's event will be the first in the Bay Area. The organizers, who meet every other week at the University of California,Berkeley or the Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco, hope that their event can be more inclusive than other women's events that exclude transgendered people and feminist men. They hope to capitalize on California's diversity, and spike the event with the Bay Area's own brand of outspoken politics and do-it-yourself workshops. 

Being active is a large part of the Ladyfest manifesto. “ It's about a community of women doing something together, making something happen, and giving approval of other women in the area doing things,” said Rae Griner, who is a graduate student at Berkeley. 

Saturday's event was headlined by The Quails, whose sassy, danceable punk shook every wallet chain in the saloon. Also playing were Confederacy of Fools, an experimental jazz-noise act, The Betty Expedition, psychedelic mood music straight out of a David Lynch movie, and Riot-a-Go-Go, stomping electric guitar rock. 

Although the event was a benefit for a women's art event, the night at the Stork Club was not for riot grrrls only. Only three of the 12 performers were women. Confederacy of Fools, an all-male band, said that it had no connection with Ladyfest before Saturday.  

Many members of the audience said that they did not usually participate in a lot of feminist activities. Friends at work had recommended the bands to Oakland-resident Art Tedeschi.  

“ I'm kind of an introvert,” he said. “ But my girlfriend is a feminist and I would stand up for women's rights. I wanted to hear music so I had no problem checking it out.”  

But for The Quails, this gig was part of a long-standing interest in Ladyfest. Members of the group exhibited art at the first event in Olympia, Wash. and hope to go to Ladyfest D.C. in August. Drummer Julianna Bright of San Francisco hopes that the festival can change the white, male focus of the punk scene. 

“ When we're on tour, we're learning how San Francisco is really kind of a wacky anomaly. There aren't so many women in bands in other places,” she said. 

The Quails proudly endorsed its feminist and queer-friendly politics even if, said bassist Seth Lorinczi, it sometimes “ raises hackles and draws lines.” But other groups were not so explicitly feminist. 

“ I believe in the freedom of personal expression in America,” said Riot-a-Go-Go's Nova Szoka, who played guitar in garter belts, Lycra and clodhopper sneakers. “ If it's about saying what you want to say without getting into trouble, then it's feminism.”  

But confusion over definitions did not stop the 100 people in the Stork Club from signing up to help organize July's event or dropping cash. Organizers were glad because there is still a lot to do. 

For one thing, they still do not have all of the money they need to put on the event, although the Jon Sims Center for the Arts has given them a grant. 

Saturday's event was only the first of seven benefits they are planning. 

They will also be seeking donations from local businesses and individuals.  

The group is also still considering arts submissions. Guidelines, calendars and the Ladyfest mission statement can be found at www.ladyfestbayarea.org 

. 

Fans can't wait for the event to come together. “ Last summer, there was Ladyfest East Coast and Ladyfest Midwest,” said Jenna MacKillop of Oakland. 

“ But why wasn't it here? I expected it to be here first. I mean, Ladyfest Midwest?”  

Editor: 

I am a strong supporter of Loni Hancock in her candidacy for state Assembly. I was elected to the Berkeley City Council while Loni was Mayor.  

As Mayor, Loni launched the revitalization of our downtown and kick-started our burgeoning Arts District — the crowning jewel of which is the Berkeley Repertory Theater.  

Loni also nurtured the growth of Berkeley's Public Education Foundation, which leverages private and public resources on behalf of our public schools. Loni Hancock is all about crafting a positive future for everyone and especially for our children.  

Both Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton called upon her to work on behalf of the nation, and we now have a chance to elect her to represent us in Sacramento on March 5th.  

Lucky us. 

Councilmember Linda Maio 

City of Berkeley 

The Berkeley High girls’ basketball team shook off a tough first half with a 9-0 run to start the second half of Saturday’s North Coast Section Division I championship game against Pittsburg, finishing with a 60-53 win at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley. 

The title is Berkeley’s seventh in a row and 14th overall, both section records. Bishop O’Dowd’s boys’ team won six in a row from 1978-83. 

Saturday’s game was a stop-and-go affair, with constant whistles from the officials keeping either team from finding a rhythm. But the constant fouls favored Berkeley, as Pittsburg freshman Necolia Simmons, who was giving the ’Jackets a hard time in the post, played just 11 minutes due to foul trouble. 

“Without all the foul trouble, you can’t predict what would have happened,” Pittsburg coach Maureen Mattson said. “I’d have to say we outplayed them.” 

Guard Shaquita Brown led the ’Jackets with 16 points, with backcourt mate Angelita Hutton scoring 12. Senior forward Sabrina Keys had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Pittsburg got 15 points from forward Courtney Warren, but the Pirates’ leading scorer was just 5-for-18 from the field. 

SImmons established herself early, bulling her way down low for two early baskets for a 4-2 Pirate lead. But the ’Jackets answered with a 13-2 run, and a 28-28 tie at halftime the best Pittsburg could manage for the rest of the way. 

Keys had a rough-and-tumble game. Coming in with a sprained ankle, she was poked in the eye in the first quarter, then rolled her other ankle early in the second, forcing her to sit for five minutes. Without her, Berkeley was vulnerable down low, giving up two quick putbacks that cut their lead to 22-18. 

But even with Keys out, Simmons still picked up her third foul when she hit Myette Anderson’s arm on a shot. Simmons showed her youth, jumping up and down in reaction to the call and earning a technical foul, which doubled as her fourth personal. The freshman left the game and would return only for a 30-second stint in the fourth quarter before fouling out. 

“Simmons being out made a big difference,” Berkeley head coach Gene Nakamura said. “She can play, but she’s a freshman, and she made freshman mistakes.” 

Instead of pulling away with Simmons on the bench, the ’Jackets coughed up their lead instead. Anderson missed her foul shots, and Hutton missed both free throws for the technical. Pittsburg’s Courtney Warren scored off an inbounds play in the final seconds, and the score was tied 28-28 going into halftime. 

Keys came out of the locker room with renewed energy, scoring the first two baskets of the second half.  

“Sabrina’s a warrior,” Nakamura said. “She has two sprained ankles, but she’s the type of girl who just laces ‘em up a little tighter and gets back out there.” 

Hutton then hit a 3-point play and stole the ball, feeding Brown for a layup and a nine-point lead. The lead got as big as 15 points in the quarter. 

“We were beating ourselves with turnovers and fouls,” Keys said. “But once we started playing our game and getting good shots, they couldn’t beat us.” 

But the ’Jackets didn’t exactly slam the door. The Pirates got as close as four points down the stretch, thanks to some quick triggers by the Berkeley players. 

“I wasn’t very happy,” Nakamura said of the Pirate comeback. “Time is (Pittsburg’s) enemy at that point, and we were giving the ball right back to them.” 

The ’Jackets were awarded the second seed for the Northern California Regional playoffs this week. They will play the winner of a St. Ignatius-Washington outbracket game at home on Wednesday. Pleasant Valley, which beat Berkeley earlier this season, is the top seed, while Pittsburg was given the fifth seed and will take on OAL champ Oakland Tech.

An independent publishing house has declared Sunnyvale the seventh safest city in the nation based on a comparison of crime rates as of 2000, and ranked 10 other Bay Area cities in the top 100 of the 327 cities surveyed. 

On the down side, however, the "Morgan Quitno 8th Annual America's Safest Cities'' survey, released last week, rated one Bay Area city, Oakland, as the 28th most dangerous in the nation, and Salinas as the 98th. The only California city with a higher rate of crime than Oakland, according to the survey, is Compton. 

The annual survey by the Lawrence, Kan.-based company ranks cities with populations of 75,000 or more from safest to most dangerous by comparing their rates for six basic crimes to the national average. By this measure, mthe publishing house found that Livermore is the 15th safest city in the country, Santa Clara the 22nd, Fremont 24th, Redwood City 36th, San Mateo 39th, Daly City 51st, Alameda 72nd, Vacaville 73rd, San Jose 90th and Santa Rosa 97th. 

While many cities remained within a few places of their rankings in last year's survey, a few showed a considerable change. San Mateo dropped 10 places from last year's ranking as 29th safest, and Alameda fell nearly 30 places. Antioch and San Leandro also showed sizable drops in their safety ranking.  

Daly City, on the other hand, improved its safety ranking by nearly 20 places.  

Proposition 42 hijacks general purpose state taxes to benefit only transportation, in fixed proportions. There already is a gas tax to support transportation. If it is insufficient, increase it or have an honest weighing of spending priorities for all the state's responsibilities.  

If we start awarding sales tax money by what it was generated, then why not have sales tax from luxury items support projects for the wealthy, and computer taxes to support the computer industry, etc.?  

Perhaps public hospitals should be supported by gas taxes in proportion to the cost of traffic injuries, and police by the amount of time spent on traffic issues? It used to be that pooled resources paid for public services. Please vote March 5 to help defeat proposition 42. 

Barbara Judd 

Berkeley

TUCSON, Ariz. - In perhaps its biggest Pac-10 basketball game ever, California came away with the second-worst loss in the school’s history.  

Rick Anderson had 17 points to lead six Arizona scorers in double figures as the 14th-ranked Wildcats routed No. 21 California 99-53 on Saturday.  

The loss guaranteed Oregon the Pac-10 title, the Ducks’ first outright conference championship since they won the inaugural NCAA tournament in 1939. Later Saturday, Oregon beat UCLA 65-62 to finish two games ahead of its nearest rival.  

It was California’s worst loss since a 101-50 rout at Stanford two years ago. The Bears could have earned a share of the Pac-10 title with a victory and an Oregon loss to UCLA. Cal hasn’t won a conference championship in 42 years.  

Cal head coach Ben Braun and his players seemed as perplexed as anyone by the team’s uninspired effort.  

“I just don’t remember many times our team didn’t step up and meet the challenge,” Braun said. “It’s hard to explain.”  

Arizona (19-9, 12-6) finished tied for second and will get the No. 2 seed in next week’s Pac-10 tournament because the Wildcats won all possible tiebreakers.  

The Wildcats held a players-only meeting before the game.  

“We talked about either being the second seed or the sixth seed. That was a lot of motivation,” playmaker Jason Gardner said. “There were a lot of people saying we were going to finish fourth or fifth in the Pac-10. We wanted to prove everything wrong.”  

The Bears (21-7, 12-6), swept by Arizona this season, fell behind 14-3, trailed by 19 points at halftime, then were buried by Wildcats with a 30-4 burst to start the second half.  

“That’s what we don’t understand at this point,” Cal’s Brian Wethers aid. “We knew how important of a game this was, and to come out and give this effort is real frustrating.”  

Anderson, who missed Arizona’s practice Friday because of a virus, played just 20 minutes and had nine rebounds. He was 3-for-5 from 3-point range as the Wildcats made 14 of 32 from beyond the arc and outrebounded the Bears 48-27. After the game, Anderson begged off interviews because he needed to go receive antibiotics.  

“Ricky was still really under the weather and had been since early in the week,” coach Lute Olson said. “I think you saw against Stanford that he just ran out of gas in the second half. We didn’t have him work out at all yesterday. He just watched practice. He needs to get well for us.”  

Luke Walton had 10 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds for the Wildcats, while Salim Stoudamire had 15 points, Jason Gardner and Will Bynum each added 14 and freshman Dennis Latimore a career-best 12.  

Bynum, who sat out Thursday’s loss to Stanford for missing a workout on Sunday, was 4-for-9 from 3-point range.  

Wethers scored 18 points for the Bears and Joe Shipp had 13.  

The Wildcats outscored California 43-7 in a stretch of just over 13 minutes - 13-3 over the last three minutes of the first half and the run over the first 10:04 of the second.  

Arizona scored 21 consecutive points to go up 79-34 on Latimore’s over-his-head layup with 9:56 to play.  

The Wildcats, who led 49-30 at halftime, were 8-of-13 on 3-pointers in the first half. They shot 49 percent against a California team that leads the Pac-10 in defense and 3-point defense. In its 68-58 victory at Cal on Jan. 31, Arizona shot 55 percent - 65 percent in the second half.  

California, which beat Arizona State on Thursday night, has not swept the Arizona schools on the road since they joined the Pac-10 in 1978-79.

Today’s Highlight in History: 

One hundred years ago, on March 4, 1902, the American Automobile Association was founded in Chicago. 

On this date: 

In 1681, England’s King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn for an area of land that later became Pennsylvania. 

In 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first federal Congress met in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.) 

In 1829, an unruly crowd mobbed the White House during the inaugural reception for President Jackson.. 

In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated president, pledging to lead the country out of the Great Depression. 

In 1933, the start of President Roosevelt’s first administration brought with it the first woman to serve in the Cabinet: Labor Secretary Frances Perkins. 

In 1952, 50 years ago, actors Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married in San Fernando Valley, Calif. 

In 1981, a jury in Salt Lake City convicted Joseph Paul Franklin, an avowed racist, of violating the civil rights of two black men who were shot to death. 

Ten years ago: 

Another round of Middle East peace negotiations concluded in Washington, D.C., with Israel rejecting a plan for Palestinian elections. 

Five years ago:  

President Clinton visited the scene of tornado destruction in his home state of Arkansas, where he also declared Ohio and Kentucky disaster areas because of floods. President Clinton barred spending federal money on human cloning. 

One year ago:  

President George W. Bush dedicated a $4 billion aircraft carrier in honor of former President Reagan. An oceanside memorial was held in Hawaii for 9 people from a Japanese fishing boat who were killed when their vessel was accidentally sunk by a U.S. submarine.  

While not wanting to belittle the welcome addition of the new Berkeley Pedestrian Bridge over Interstate 80, I was amused to learn from a quote by Mr. Scott Berkowitz that “t's awesome and unique. There is no other bridge like this anywhere, and I've been everywhere.” 

Perhaps Mr. Berkowitz may have been everywhere in Alameda County, but he certainly has NOT been to visit Gateshead, County Durham in England.  

Here you will find a unique bridge, catering exclusively for pedestrians, bikers and the disabled, called the Millennium Bridge that opens and closes by a “winking eye” process.  

By viewing the web-page http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/bridge/bridged.htm other less-well travelled readers in Berkeley might wish to learn about other “awesome and unique” things in other countries. 

Dr. Barry Welsh 

UC Space Sciences Laboratory, 

UC Berkeley 

LOS ANGELES — Dave Smith, whose elegant prose helped usher in an era of literary journalism at the Los Angeles Times in the 1960s, died of a heart attack at his Tucson, Ariz., home. He was 64. 

Smith, who was found dead Feb. 20, covered some of California’s most high-profile crime cases for the Times, including the trial of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin. 

He was perhaps best known at the paper, however, for pieces like one on Benny Smith, who killed several women and girls at a Mesa, Ariz., beauty parlor in 1966. The story, nearly 8,000 words long, examined in meticulous detail the killer’s psychological profile, tracing a descent into crime that began with a troubled, lonely childhood. 

He was one of several people the Times recruited in those days “because they could write,” recalled former Editor William F. Thomas. 

Smith, who grew up in Arizona, worked for the Tucson Daily Star while attending the University of Arizona. He went on to work for The Associated Press in Los Angeles and New York before joining the Times in 1968. He retired in the 1980s, returning to Arizona..

Editor: 

It is time for us to stop hiding behind fears about traffic as a justification for blocking development.  

The main reason why we have traffic is people are forced to commute to Berkeley as the housing stock has increased by only 715 while the number of jobs increased by 18,000. If we are going to block denser development in appropriate areas like University, San Pablo and Sacramento and at Ashby and North Berkeley Bart stations then we have no business complaining about traffic. There is constant talk about encouraging commuters to Berkeley to use public transportation, but what about encouraging residents of Berkeley to do the same? How will we address internal commuting? What are we doing to encourage residents of Berkeley to get out of their cars when running their errands or dropping off/picking up their kids from school? Are we going to address the problem of congestion by building the 17,000 needed units, or are we going to protect the interests of the 10% of Berkeley residents who can afford to purchase a home in Berkeley? As one of the 90% of Bay, I am willing to sacrifice the bay views of pseudo progressives. 

Jeffrey Schilling 

Berkeley

SANTA ROSA — A small plane crashed about a quarter mile from the Sonoma Skypark Airport Sunday, injuring the pilot and his 17-year-old passenger. 

The pilot, a 56-year-old Hayward resident, said the plane malfunctioned and he lost control about 100 feet in the air. The plane nose-dived, narrowly missing a house and clipping a truck as it crashed around 3 p.m. 

The plane took off from the Sonoma Skypark Airport, and the manager described the pilot as a safe pilot. 

“He’s been flying for many years,” manager Roy Secrist said. “He’s very experienced, very qualified, a very safe flier.” 

The 17-year-old girl suffered deep cuts and a broken ankle. She was interested in learning to fly, and the pilot is her father’s friend. The pilot suffered minor cuts and bruises. 

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating. 

40,000 square-foot facility fulfills Harvey Milk’s dream 

SAN FRANCISCO — When one of the nation’s first openly gay leaders was assassinated 23 years ago at City Hall, a dream died with him. City Supervisor Harvey Milk had envisioned a place where gays and lesbians could come together to talk about politics, social issues or simply about what it meant to live as homosexuals in San Francisco. 

Milk, who first used his camera store in the Castro District as a meeting place for gays, would have been proud of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center. Its doors opened Sunday with a grand celebration after nine years of planning and construction. 

“If San Francisco is the gayest place in America, the center is the gayest place in the gayest place in America,” said Oren Slozberg, the center’s interim executive director. 

It’s a place for newcomers, youth, seniors and everyone in between. Everything from an American Indian group to therapy and classes on how to write resumes will be offered there. There are even unisex bathrooms so visitors aren’t forced to pick a gender. 

The center also will provide a gay-friendly environment for those who may still be closeted or intimidated. Some students are already praising the site as a place to continue their education while avoiding homophobic peers in mainstream classes. 

And, by design, the building makes a statement to anyone coming in or out. The 40,000 square foot center is a classic Victorian house combined with an addition built out of clear glass. The glass structure is a symbolic statement about the gay community’s history and its future — an open, uncloseted lifestyle that’s proudly showcased. 

“It’s a place to mark and celebrate commitment ceremonies, memorials and births,” Slozberg said. “Very specific moments in their lives.” 

While San Francisco is far from lacking in gay rights groups and services, most are scattered throughout the city. Some, like the Harvey Milk Institute, which offers classes and programs about gay culture, have been operating out of organizers’ homes. 

The $15.3 million community center, which included $7.5 in government funding, will provide 23 nonprofit agencies with office space. 

Nearly 50,000 people are expected to visit in the first year based on projections from the nation’s 142 other gay centers. 

The opening also serves as a second wind for the city’s battered gay community. After Milk was shot by Supervisor Dan White in 1978 during the height of gay-rights activism, AIDS hit hard — ravaging the city’s gay population. 

The history room will make sure none of that is lost with exhibits, lectures and performances. 

“We need to be a stronger and more cohesive community to face all of the outside challenges we continue to face,” said Dana Van Gorder, vice president of the board of directors. “We’re not as focused as we should be on what we want the political and social future to look like. The center is dedicated to the idea of building our future.”

SAN FRANCISCO — As California’s primary draws near, Rep. Gary Condit faces the toughest election of his crumbled political career and Republicans are waging a fierce battle for the right to take on Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. 

Tuesday’s primary comes after a year of turmoil featuring a sex scandal involving a missing intern, a crippling energy crisis and multi-billion-dollar budget troubles. 

Besides determining Condit’s future and Davis’ opponent, voters also will decide whether to send two sisters to Congress for the first time, and whether the state will revise its 12-year-old term-limits law. 

In Condit’s district, once so supportive it was called Condit Country, the 13-year House veteran faces his toughest challenge from Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, a former aide who has garnered cash and endorsements from former Condit supporters. 

The primary winner will face the victor in a four-candidate GOP field that includes state Sen. Dick Monteith, R-Modesto. 

Polls conducted by Cardoza’s campaign showed the state legislator leading Condit by a 2-to-1 ratio. 

Condit’s bid for another term was shadowed by the case of Washington, D.C., intern Chandra Levy, 24, who vanished as she was preparing to move home to Modesto after her internship ended at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. 

The divisive Republican race for the gubernatorial nomination, meanwhile, has been dominated by two Los Angeles millionaires who attend the same Roman Catholic church in Santa Monica. 

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, encouraged by the White House to run, once held an overwhelming lead in the polls over Los Angeles businessman Bill Simon. However, Simon, who had never before run for political office, vaulted into the lead in the most recent polls. 

Simon poured millions of his own personal fortune into his campaign and even attracted attention from representatives of President Bush who had become uncomfortable with Riordan’s chances. 

Now Riordan has been forced to try to show Republicans that only he, as a moderate, can beat Davis in a state where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans. Simon, on the other hand, is pinning his hopes on an expected high turnout from conservatives who can’t abide Riordan’s relative liberalism. 

“It started a huge food fight in the Republican party,” said Bruce Cain, a University of California, Berkeley, political scientist. 

On Saturday, Riordan and Simon toured California trying to churn up support and intensifying their attacks. 

Riordan spent the morning in the Bay Area. He visited an office where supporters were calling voters to cast ballots Tuesday for Riordan. Among the notables lending their voices to recorded pro-Riordan messages this weekend was Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

Riordan stepped up his Simon attack, calling him too extreme to be elected in California. He also blamed Davis, who already has run a slew of anti-Riordan ads, for his decline in the polls. 

“Gray Davis knows I will beat him in November and his only choice of staying on as governor is to beat me next Tuesday,” Riordan told a crowd of supporters in Burlingame. “Don’t let that happen.” 

Simon, meanwhile, flew around the state, stopping at airports from Chico to Santa Maria and thanking supporters. He did not attack Riordan, though Riordan had called him a “sanctimonious hypocrite.” 

“It’s the closing days of the campaign, I’m obviously sad to hear of this,” he told reporters as he got on the plane in Sacramento to head to Oakland. “Emotions are running high and a lot of things are being said.” 

A third candidate in the Republican primary, Secretary of State Bill Jones, is the most politically experienced candidate in the field. However, he never managed to build any momentum or raise cash for his campaign. 

Until the final weeks, the Republican candidates had concentrated on bashing Davis, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary but has spent nearly $15 million on his campaign — more than any of his GOP rivals. 

California voters face a ballot initiative to revise the term-limits law that was approved in 1990. If passed, it would let legislative districts’ voters petition to extend their legislators’ tenure by an extra term. A poll released Friday showed opposition to the initiative was growing, rising to 51 percent in late February from 45 percent in late January. 

“Hand over Taliban and al-Qaida or you will be destroyed. Come forward with information about Taliban and al-Qaida,”  

— American leaflets dropped to the ground by helicopter 

SURMAD, Afghanistan — U.S. bombers pounded al-Qaida and Taliban positions in the eastern mountains of Afghanistan on Sunday after a 1,500-strong coalition ground attack the day before failed to dislodge the well-armed renegades. 

No major ground action was reported Sunday. However, U.S. Chinook helicopters ferried in supplies to American and other troops still in the hills, a local commander said, signaling preparations for a new round of ground fighting. 

Afghan troops warned the operation to dislodge the regrouping Taliban and al-Qaida forces from their hide-outs in the mountain caves here in Paktia province was far from over. 

“You can’t do everything in one operation,” said Raza Khan, an Afghan fighter recovering from Saturday’s battle at the hospital in the provincial capital, Gardez. “This is Afghanistan. This is a guerrilla war.” 

Leaflets dropped by U.S. aircraft on the arid plains of the province urged residents to cooperate: “Hand over Taliban and al-Qaida or you will be destroyed. Come forward with information about Taliban and al-Qaida,” read the leaflets, written in Afghanistan’s two most common languages, Pashtu and Dari. 

One American soldier and three Afghan fighters were killed Saturday on the first day of the ground operation, the Pentagon said. Six Americans were injured and airlifted out, a doctor at Gardez hospital said. 

The assault, which began with bombing raids late Friday, was believed to be the largest joint U.S.-Afghan military operation of the 5-month-old terrorism war. Pro-U.S. Afghan troops approached the hide-outs from three directions to isolate the renegades and prevent them from escaping. 

Sunday’s operations were mostly limited to airstrikes as B-52s and other warplanes repeatedly pounded targets in the Shah-e-Kot mountains 20 miles east of Surmad and the Kharwar range to the west in Logar province. 

The bombardments sent thick, black plumes of smoke above the snowcapped peaks and shook the ground in Surmad, where a constant stream of bombers streaked overhead. 

However, one Afghan commander, Abdul Matin Hassan Kheil, said his men came under fire Sunday from mortars, heavy artillery and rockets fired from al-Qaida positions where Arabs, Chechens and Pakistanis were believed holed up. 

“You can see it is a big operation,” said Kheil, who led 50 fighters at a front-line position. He said coalition forces were dug in about one mile from al-Qaida bases in the Shah-e-Kot mountains. Kheil estimated it would take a month to push the renegades from the mountains.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis has announced that he will not take a position on Proposition 45, the ballot measure that would ease term limits in the state Legislature. 

The governor’s announcement Saturday runs counter to his own Democratic Party, which has poured $3.2 million to back the initiative. His neutral stance also differs from Democratic legislators who have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Prop. 45. 

The initiative is opposed by the state Republican Party and by all three of Davis’ GOP challengers for governor — former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, businessman Bill Simon Jr. and Secretary of State Bill Jones. 

Recent polls show the measure trailing slightly among likely voters, but a large portion of the electorate remains undecided. 

If the measure fails, several Democratic lawmakers would be required to leave the Legislature in 2004. 

LOS ANGELES — In less than two years, Northrop Grumman Corp. has catapulted from a distant fourth among defense contractors to a strong third. If its proposed acquisition of TRW Inc. goes through, it could soon hit No. 1. 

The rapid growth came as Northrop bought Litton Industries, then Newport News Shipbuilding and several other smaller companies. Last month, it made a $5.9 billion unsolicited bid for TRW. 

The moves reflect a decade of consolidation in the defense industry during which a Reagan-era hodgepodge of contractors shrank to a handful of large, powerful one-stop shopping conglomerates. 

The consolidation was encouraged by the Defense Department, which wanted fewer, stronger companies competing for shrinking dollars. 

But critics question whether taxpayers have benefitted from the trend. They say less competition among contractors has meant higher prices and less incentive for technological innovation. 

“It’s basic economics,” said P.W. Singer, Olin Fellow in the foreign policy studies program at the Brookings Institution. “You have fewer firms out there bidding on these contracts, and so the prices don’t get driven down by competition.” 

The situation also makes it tough for small companies to grow and join the major players. Analysts say technology moves so fast, the government can no longer promise long-term contracts, making it nearly impossible for small firms to spread research and development costs over many years. 

“You don’t want to commit to buy a unit for the next 20 years because it may have a shelf-life of three or four years,” said Sam Gejdenson, a consultant and former congressman from Connecticut. Experts say the consolidation trend peaked in 1996, when the Department of Justice balked at approving the purchase of Northrop by Lockheed Martin Corp. 

“That’s the first time the government stepped up and said, ’We’ve seen enough,”’ said Christopher Hellman, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C. 

Gejdenson and others say the Department of Justice is sensitive to issues of competition and has slowed the pace of major deals in recent years. Justice officials, along with the Pentagon, rejected a proposed combination of General Dynamics and Newport News Shipbuilding last year because it would limit competition for nuclear ships. 

World’s second largest software firm’s shortfall dashes hopes of a high-tech comeback 

SAN FRANCISCO — Technology bellwether Oracle Corp. warned Friday its profit and sales during its latest quarter were weaker than anticipated — an indication that recession-weary businesses remain reluctant to invest in computer software and other equipment. 

The Redwood Shores-based company estimated its earnings for the three-month period ending in February will be 9 cents per share, a penny below the consensus estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call. The projection also represents penny decrease from the company’s profit at the same time last year. 

Oracle, the world’s second largest software maker behind Microsoft, is scheduled to announce the results of its fiscal third quarter March 14. The shortfall reflected sluggish sales of Oracle’s database and business software, particularly in Asia, said CEO Larry Ellison. 

Without providing specific numbers, Oracle said the year-to-year change in software sales for third quarter will be similar to second — second-quarter sales fell 27 percent from the previous year. 

In a conference call with analysts in December, Oracle executives had forecast a decline “in the high teens” during the just-completed quarter. 

Oracle’s warning probably will dash hopes for a revival in the depressed high-tech. “This casts a pall over everything,” said industry analyst George Gilbert of Credit Suisse First Boston. Oracle’s shares fell 63 cents to close at $15.99 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. After the company issued its warning, Oracle’s shares plunged $1.27, or nearly 8 percent, in after-hours trading. Many other tech stocks also dropped during after-hours trading. 

LOS ANGELES — One of the major creditors lining up to salvage some of its investment in Global Crossing is trying to stop the $750 million buyout proposal put forward by the telecom firm. 

Fleet National Bank, a subsidiary of FleetBoston Financial Corp., said the price is too low and the proposed deal “may be tainted by collusion and self-dealing.” 

Fleet filed its objection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York Friday. Under the bankruptcy plan filed by Global Crossing Jan. 28, Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong and Singapore Technologies Telemedia would inject $750 million for a 79 percent stake in the company. Creditors would receive the remaining 21 percent and $300 million in cash. 

Fleet said that because Global Crossing has more than $600 million of cash on hand, the buyout price would amount to less than $150 million. Global Crossing spent more than $12 billion to build a seamless fiber optic network spanning 27 countries between 1997 and this year. 

In the filing, Fleet said that recent revelations by the New York Times that two Global Crossing directors, including chairman and founder Gary Winnick, secretly invested $25 million in a firm effectively controlled by Singapore Technologies “suggest strongly that the Investment Proposal may be tainted by collusion and self-dealing.” 

Fleet also objected in its filing to termination and expense reimbursements fees of $50 million promised to Hutchison and Singapore Technologies, which it said amounts to 33 percent of the net cash offered creditors. 

Janis Burenga, a spokeswoman for Global Crossing, would not comment on Fleet’s filing except to say, “the court will ultimately decide.”

District and union to enter delicate negotiation 

Now that the Board of Education has approved $3.8 million in cuts and set the stage for heavy layoffs, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers and the school district are locked in a delicate dance over work conditions for those who will remain. 

“What’s nice is that both the district and the union are coming across with a collaborative attitude,” said David Gomez, associate superintendent of administrative services. “But it’s not going to be all rosy.” 

Budget cuts, approved by the board Wednesday night, include several items that may affect teachers who retain their jobs.  

Among other things, the board voted to increase class sizes and move from a seven- to a six-period day at Berkeley High School.  

Currently, BHS instructors teach for five periods, plan for one and monitor the hall for another. With only six periods in place, work schedules laid out in the teacher contract could be affected. 

The board also voted to cut department heads at the high school and replace them with “department specialists.” The specialists would have less planning time than their predecessors and a higher stipend. That stipend is negotiable.  

Union president Barry Fike would not confirm the issues at stake, citing the importance of confidential negotiations. But he said at least five of the contract’s 25 articles may need to be re-negotiated in the wake of the cuts. 

Gomez got more specific. He said the union, in preliminary discussions, has raised concerns over class size, work schedule, stipends for department heads at the high school, and a teacher evaluation program, involving peer review, that is built into the current contract. 

District and union officials are scheduled to meet Monday night and set a start date for official negotiations. Both sides said they expect civil talks, but fireworks at the school board meeting Wednesday night suggest there may be turbulence ahead. 

At the meeting, Fike criticized the district for failing to provide the union with financial and teacher retirement information. 

“BFT made a formal request for information to the district many days ago and we have yet to be handed one item on the list,” he said. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence countered that the district only heard about the request at a meeting with union officials two days before. Fike countered that the official request was first made two weeks prior, on Feb. 11. 

Fike also attacked the district for scheduling layoff hearings during Spring Break, when many teachers have planned to go away on vacation. The hearings allow teachers to verify that the district has accurately accounted for their seniority, which plays a vital role in which teachers are cut.  

“The psychological trauma of receiving layoff notices is hard enough,” he said. “To purposefully schedule layoff hearings in such a way would clearly be adding insult to injury.” 

In an interview Friday, two days after the board meeting, Associate Superintendent of Business Jerry Kurr said the district will address the union’s scheduling concerns. 

“If that is an issue with a lot of people, we won’t do that, because we don’t want to start in an adversarial mode,” said Kurr. 

Still, Kurr said the district does have some concerns about paying for substitutes to fill in for teachers with layoff hearings during the regular work week.  

Wednesday night, the Board of Education voted to issue layoff notices to about 200 district employees. Roughly 150 of those employees are teachers or administrators who, if they have the proper credentials, could take a job in the classroom and “bump” a beginning teacher. 

The Board, which needs to cut about $6 million by the end of the year, plans to rescind many of the layoff notices as the budget picture crystallizes in the coming months.  

For more than 25 years national, state and local preservation groups have given annual awards to the owners, architects and contractors of buildings that have been restored, stabilized or adaptively reused in ways that are sensitive to the original building. The awards serve to demonstrate that old buildings can be reused, rehabilitated and given a new life and to encourage the preservation of older buildings. All types of buildings are eligible for these awards: from once common 1920s gas stations to warehouses, hotels, or single-family homes. 

The building pictured here is the Town and Gown Club and it has received two preservation awards, one from the state-wide California Preservation Foundation, and one from the local organization, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.  

A building that receives an award need not be the work of a famous architect, but the Town and Gown Club happens to have been designed by Berkeley and the Bay Area's most famous architect, Bernard Maybeck. The building was constructed in 1899 and is one of Maybeck’s early surviving buildings; several from this period were destroyed in the 1923 Berkeley fire, and a few more have been lost to redevelopment. 

The club building exemplifies Maybeck's interest in creating a visually interesting structure without the use of applied decoration. It is wood-frame construction and finished on the exterior with redwood shingles. The overhanging roof is supported by a system of outrigger joists and verticals wood pieces. 

Richard Longstreth in his book On the Edge of the World described the building: "Maybeck was fascinated by the expressive potential of structural elements…[the club is] a tall, unadorned box with a structural cage that bursts out near the top, extending nearly six feet from the wall plane… This network projects just as far into the upstairs assembly room, where it appears to hang from the roof…the relationship of structure to space is made all the more tenuous by the absence of revealed posts…instead, the paneling and fireplace are improbably elongated, as if they hung from the beams." Stabilizing this building to make it safe for future generations of users and yet retain its unique character, required complex engineering and planning.  

The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association will present this year's awards on May 23. To nominate a building for an award, please call 841-2242.  

Susan Cerny is author of "Berkeley Landmarks" and writes this in conjunction with Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.

Editor: 

The University's Director of Transportation Nad Permaul asserts (Daily Planet, 2/28) that the University can't afford to follow the City's lead and provide its employees with Eco Pass transit passes that will allow them to ride A.C. Transit for free. 

The cost, estimated at $60 per year per employee, is a drop in the bucket in relation to the University's overall compensation costs. It's also a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of building the planned Underhill parking structure. The University could provide all its employees with Eco Passes for the next 30 years for less than what it will cost to build the Underhill garage. 

That UC thinks that Eco Pass is too expensive suggests that they view addressing the concerns of Berkeley citizens about as a very low priority.  

The University is the largest generator of automobile traffic in the city. The volume of traffic and the traffic congestion in the neighborhoods surrounding campus is a real problem 

Encouraging more employees to use transit should be a high priority, especially if the University plans to expand. 

The University's approach to transportation planning is internally contradictory. On the one hand, they have followed the lead of UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis and implemented a bus pass for students (the “Class Pass”). They have a shuttle bus system that serves the campus. But on the other hand, they charge below market rates for parking and plan to add a huge amount of additional parking at Underhill, which will encourage more people to drive. 

Eco Pass programs in Denver and Boulder, Colorado, and in Santa Clara County have succeeded in increasing transit ridership and reducing automobile trips. 

If UC can't manage to take this basic step, then they shouldn't be surprised if every one of their proposed developments meets opposition from Berkeley citizens and their elected representatives.  

University officials are constantly saying that they want to work cooperatively with the City. Actions speak louder than words. Implementing Eco Pass for their employees would signal that they are serious about cooperation. 

Rob Wrenn 

Planning Commission 

Berkeley 

NEW YORK — Is there life beyond Earth? A new computer-generated show at the American Museum of Natural History probes the question by taking viewers from the blackest depths of the ocean to the cosmos outside the Milky Way galaxy. 

It’s quite a ride. The journey unfolds on the domed ceiling of the circular theater, where images from seven huge projectors form sights like a panorama of the surface of Mars. It feels like you’re riding some kind of magic whale that can rise with speed and grace from the deep ocean to slip through the clouds and soar through outer space. 

“The Search for Life: Are We Alone?” replaces “Passport to the Universe,” which took more than 3 million viewers on a different cosmic voyage during its two-year run at the museum’s Hayden Planetarium. The original show, narrated by Tom Hanks, may return later. 

Harrison Ford takes over the narrating duties in the new 23-minute production, which the museum developed with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 

The new show continues the idea of sweating the scientific details. The 25,000 stars it shows in the Milky Way galaxy are in the right spots; so are the 28,000 other galaxies it depicts. And when audience members watch cosmic clouds condense to form stars, they’re seeing the results of mathematical simulations designed to understand that process. 

For a lay audience of museumgoers, isn’t this overkill? 

“We’re a scientific institution. Our goal is to educate. ... We want to actually show the science,” replied Anthony Braun, executive producer for the museum’s Rose Center for Earth and Space. 

Quite properly, the show doesn’t claim to answer the question of whether there’s life in outer space, because scientists don’t know. A lay person who has paid attention to the topic won’t hear any startling insights here either. But the presentation does review key points that scientists are pondering. 

The visit to the deep ocean, for example, shows a perpetually dark environment where scalding hot water spurts from the bowels of Earth — and where some organisms thrive. “Life is tougher than we thought,” Ford remarks. 

The show also notes the fairly recent discoveries of dozens of planets outside the solar system, illustrating the idea that the universe contains plenty of places where life might spring up. “What are the odds that our planet is the only one with life?” Ford asks. 

Some of these distant “exoplanets” have already been reached by radio and TV waves from old transmissions on Earth, the show notes. You have to wonder what any distant life form would conclude about whether there’s intelligent life on Earth. 

Ford also notes that two favorite potential spots for life are much closer to home: Mars and Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Viewers check out Mars with a 360-degree image of its surface, courtesy of the 1997 Pathfinder mission. 

For all its focus on the possibility of life beyond, the show’s closing words remind viewers that there’s work to be done at home, too. 

“If we can learn to protect our only home in the cosmos and the life that it brought forth,” Ford says, “just think of the new worlds, and ways of being alive, that we might discover.”

Saturday, March 2

The 2002 White Elephant  

Sale 

9 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

White Elephant Warehouse 

333 Lancaster St., Oakland 

The 42nd annual White Elephant Sale, benefiting the Oakland Museum. Free. http://www.museumca.org/events/elephant.html. 

Outdoor Cross Training and  

Conditioning Basics 

2 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

REI’s Kristy Ruocco will draw on her experiences as a certified yoga instructor and nutritionist as she discusses the fundamentals of outdoor cross training and conditioning - different types of workouts, stretching, nutrition and goal setting. 527-4140. 

The Great Rummage Sale 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society 

2700 Ninth St. 

The Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society is a “no-kill” animal shelter whose 

mission is to place adoptable dogs and cats in suitable, loving homes. 

Our Great Rummage Sale, held the first and third Saturday of each month, 

helps provide funds toward the operation of our shelter. clamata@berkeleyhumane.org. 

Sunday, March 3

Shaping a Just U.S. Policy in  

the Middle East 

2 - 7:30 p.m. 

International House 

2299 Piedmont Ave. 

Join Bay Area peace, social justice and faith-based organizations for a two- day conference focusing on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, Iraq, Afghanistan and the impact these policies on civil rights and democracy in the U.S. 415-565-0201 x26, www.afsc.org/wagingpeace. 

The Ancient Trees Initiative 

noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

411 28th Street  

The Old Growth Tree Initiative of Northern California is a statewide measure that will be submitted directly to California voters in the November 2002 election if 420,000 or more Californians sign the petitions. 451-5818, www.ancienttrees.org. 

The Berkshire’s Second 

Anniversary Celebration 

2 - 4 p.m. 

The Berkshire Assisted Living 

2235 Sacramento St. 

The public is invited. Tours available. 841-4844. 

English Ceilidh Dancing 

7 p.m. 

Grace North Church  

2138 Cedar St.  

Family friendly, no partner needed, all dances taught and called to live music. $10. 650-365-2913, http://www.bacds.org. 

Hadassah Donor Brunch 

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

H's Lordship's Restaurant 

Berkeley Marina 

Ariel Levite, former head of the Bureau of International Security in Israel and military scholar, speaks about Israeli Security. teachme99@attbi.com. 

Monday, March 4

Low- and No-Tech  

Approaches to Household 

Energy Conservation 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

University Ave. and Bonar St. 

How to cut your energy bills by 50-90 percent with lots of diligence and little money, by Rueben Deumling, Berkeley Energy Commission. 981-5435, energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

The Dominican School of  

Philosophy 

and Theology presents the 2002 Aquinas Symposium: 

Aquinas' Commentaries on Platonic Texts 

7:30 p.m.  

Badè Museum, Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Fran O'Rourke on "Unity in Aquinas' Neoplatonic Commentaries"; Vivian Boland, O.P., on "Thinking About Good: Aquinas on Divine Names IV, De Hebdomadibus & Nicomachean Ethics I"; and Mark Damien Delp on "Abstract and Concrete Names: Logic and Metaphysics in Aquinas' Platonic Commentaries." Free and open to public. 883-2072, mdelp@dspt.edu. 

Economics of Transition  

Seminar 

noon 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Wei Li, University of Virginia, "Great Leap Forward or Backward? Anatomy of a Central Planning Disaster." 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/ 

Tuesday, March 5

Berkeley Folk Dancers  

Salsa Dance Workshop  

7:45 - 9:45 p.m. 

Live Oak Park Recreational Center 

1301 Shattuck Ave. 

With Charlene Van Ness. Dancers of all levels welcomed. BFD members $5, 

non-members $7. 234-2069.  

The Dominican School of  

Philosophy and Theology  

presents the 2002 Aquinas  

Symposium: Aquinas'  

Commentaries on Platonic  

Texts 

7:30 p.m.  

Badè Museum, Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Wayne John Hankey on "Thomas' Neoplatonic Histories: His Following of Simplicius"; David Burrell, C.S.C., on "Aquinas' Use of the Liber de Causis to Formulate the Creator as Cause-of-Being"; and Richard Schenk, O.P., on "From Providence to Grace: Dionysius in the Mid-Thirteenth Century." Free and open to public. 883-2072, mdelp@dspt.edu. 

Primary Election Night  

Festivities 

7 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Moses Hall 

Institute of Governmental Studies Library 

Join with fellow political junkies to watch the returns and assess the impact of the California primary. We'll be following the results of the Republican governor's race, a potential shift in control of the US House as California elects the largest congressional delegation in the nation, State Assembly and Senate primary contests, and key initiative battles. Expert commentary will be provided, amateur comments are welcome. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/ 

Wednesday, March 6

Draft 2001-2010 Short Range  

Transit Plan 

6 p.m. 

AC Transit Board Room - 2nd Floor 

1600 Franklin St. 

A public hearing before the AC Transit Board of Directors will be held to receive input prior to the adoption of the SRTP. www.actransit.org. 

Healing Mission 

6:45 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

Catholic Lay Missionary John Cojanis from the Diocese of Tucson will be conducting a large Healing Mission—spiritual, emotional and physical—everyone is invited to attend. 526-4811x19. 

Colombia and Drug  

Trafficking 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

One hour lecture by Dr. Luis Felipe Suarez - former Colombian Consul General in Puerto Rico and San Francisco, followed by one hour of questions. A Foreign Policy Association program. $5. 526-2925. 

Germbusters Puppet Show 

2:30 - 3 p.m. 

Hall of Health, Lower Level 

2230 Shattuck Ave.  

Hall of Health staff will perform two short, lively puppet shows about germs, their effects on the body, cleanliness, and proper hand-washing technique. For children ages 3 to 10. 549-1564, www.hallofhealth.org. 

Sight-Singing Classes 

6:30 - 7:20 p.m. 

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church 

6013 Lawton Ave., Oakland 

Intermediate level sight-singing classes, 5 class series, $25 for the series. 465-4199, osc1@mindspring.com. 

Peace Walk and Vigil 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley BART Station 

To demonstrate opposition to war and the U. S. bombing of Afghanistan. www.indymedia.org. 

"Global AIDS Treatment  

Access: Victories won and  

new challenges  

on the horizon" 

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

1797 Madera St. 

A HealthGAP benefit houseparty/reception. Presentations by AIDS Treatment News Editor John James and international AIDS activist Julie Davids plus entertainment. 841-4339, www.healthgap.org. 

Sequencing the Human  

Genome: Prokaryotes 

4:10 p.m. 

International House Auditorium  

2299 Piedmont Ave. 

Public lecture by Dr. J. Craig Venter, chairman of the board for the Institute for Genomic Research. 643-7413, www.grad.berkeley.edu/lectures. 

Transnational Urbanism:  

Locating Globalization 

12:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Berkeley Center for Globalization and Information Technology Spring 2002  

Speaker Series with Michael P. Smith, UC Davis. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/ 

Thursday, March 7

Ancient Cultures of the Indian Himalaya 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Slide presentation by Barbara Sansone through the Kinnaur and Spiti Valley in eastern Himachul Pradesh. 527-4140. 

Resisting the Occupation: Jewish Peace  

Activists in Israel and Palestine 

7 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Seth Schneider and Jerry Geffner were part of a recent American Jewish delegation that removed roadblocks, planted olive trees, monitored checkpoints, and met with Israeli and Palestinian peace organizations. Join them as they share slides and stories from their December trip. $5-10 sliding scale, proceeds benefit Rafah refugees. 301-0842, seth_schneider@yahoo.com. 

Sequencing the Human Genome: Eukaryotes 

4:10 p.m. 

International House Auditorium  

2299 Piedmont Ave. 

Public lecture by Dr. J. Craig Venter, chairman of the board for the Institute for Genomic Research. 643-7413, www.grad.berkeley.edu/lectures. 

Friday, March 8

International Women’s Day 

1 - 2:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Music, history, and speakers.  

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Celebrating International Women’s Day 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Theatre  

2640 College Ave. 

International Women's Day celebration with Suheir Hammad, poet and author of "First Writing Since" and "Born Palestinian, Born Black." This event is 

presented by the Arab Women's Solidarity Association and Women of Color 

Resource Center. All are welcome to both the reception at 6 p.m. and the 

program at 7 p.m. $10 - $30, sliding scale. 845-8542, www.coloredgirls.org. 

Berkeley Critical Mass Ninth Birthday Ride 

5:30 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART 

Roll through the streets with glee to celebrate the ninth 

birthday of the monthly Berkeley Critical Mass ride. Party follows. http://www.bclu.org/couch/. 

Men Considering Serving in the  

Roman Catholic church as a  

priest or brother 

9 p.m. 

Precious Blood Mission House  

2800 Milvia 

An Evening of Dialogue and Discernment for men who are considering serving in the Roman Catholic church as a priest or brother. RSVP to Rev. Gary M. Luiz, 848-1053. 

Saturday, March 9

Train for the Eco-Challenge 

2 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Liz Caldwell and Barry Siff, veteran members of Team REI-Salomon, with a slide presentation on their recent Eco-Challenge events in New Zealand and Borneo. They will discuss how to train for a competition, select team members and prevent injury. 527-4140. 

Sunday, March 10

Storytelling Women 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Live Oak Center, Social Hall 

1301 Shattuck Ave. 

Women tellers telling about women who inspire their lives. 4 storytellers and a musician. Part of the annual women’s and girls’ tea party and storytelling ceremony held in Codornices Park. $30 suggested. 841-6612. 

The Labor Movement, Democracy  

and the Political Vacuum 

noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

411 28th St., Oakland 

Presentation by Steve Zeltzer. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Monday, March 11

The Science Behind Global Warming,  

and How You Can Reduce Your Impact 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

University Ave. and Bonar St. 

Susan Ode, Berkeley Energy Commission, will provide an update on the science and implications of global warming for the world, plus a practical list of actions you can incorporate in your life to protect the global climate and improve the quality of your life. 981-5435, energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Odyssey of Conflict and Odyssey of Mastery-- 

Polanyi, Pirsig, Zen, and the Art of Knowing 

3:30 - 5 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion, Mudd 206 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Lecture and discussion presented by Allen Dyer, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at East Tennessee State University, also former chair of the ethics committee of the American Psychiatric Association. Free and open to the public. 849-8285. 

Learning from The History of Government 

noon 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Positive Political Theory Seminar with Roger Myerson, University of Chicago. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/. 

Tuesday, March 12

An Evening with Numfundo Walaza:  

The Burden of Forgiveness 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

An evening with Numfundo Walaza, director of the Trauma Center for Survivors of Violence and Torture in Capetown, South Africa. Walaza will talk about "The Burden of Forgiveness: Reflections from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of South Africa." $15. 204-0720, mkmorrison@cdsp.edu. 

Panthers lead wire-to-wire as center Knight shines 

Most of the time, it’s the St. Mary’s High backcourt that gets the most attention. After all, both DaShawn Freeman and John Sharper will play Division I college ball next season. Any accolades left over usually are heaped upon forward Chase Moore, a multi-talented three-sport athlete. But on Friday night against Bishop O’Dowd, it was center Simon Knight who paved the way for the Panthers to play for the North Coast Section title tonight. 

Knight scored 22 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and pilfered 5 steals against the third-seeded Dragons, showing a nice midrange touch to complement his inside game. The 6-foot-8 junior made his first eight shots of the game and missed just one shot before garbage time of the 74-63 St. Mary’s victory. 

“Everyone on this team can play,” said Knight, who put up 100 jumpers from each end of the free throw line during Thursday’s practice. “I can shoot, and the coaches told me to take my time.” 

St. Mary’s head coach Jose Caraballo was effusive in his praise of his biggest player. 

“Simon had the game of his life tonight,” Caraballo said. “He was just outstanding. He played his ass off.” 

The Panthers got off to a quick start, jumping out to a 6-0 lead, and never looked back. O’Dowd never even managed to tie the game, getting within a point at 23-22 early in the second quarter. But every time the Dragons made a run, St. Mary’s would hit a couple of baskets to get some breathing room. 

“We were patient, and we got back in the ballgame a couple of times,” O’Dowd head coach Pat Phelps said. “But we were just outmanned.” 

Knight’s outburst was such a surprise, even the Dragons didn’t seem to know who he was. Dave Brutucao-Kemp, who scored 12 points on four 3-pointers for O’Dowd, couldn’t come up with Knight’s name after the game. 

“Their big guy had a great game,” he said. “We just had no answer for him.” 

After a Andrew Lemke basket got O’Dowd within a point at 23-22, Knight took over, scoring 8 points during an 11-1 St. Mary’s run.  

In the second half, Knight hit his eighth straight shot to give the Panthers their biggest lead of the game, 49-33. The Dragons would get no closer than seven points for the remainder of the game, as Freeman and Sharper avoided turnovers and hit key free throws down the stretch. 

For Caraballo, who played for Phelps, the win was special. 

“I played for Phelps, and he’s got record wins and a great program,” Caraballo said. “He took us off his schedule this year, and my kids were fired up. But the most important thing is that we get to play again.” 

The Panthers face top-seeded De La Salle tonight at 8 p.m. at Haas Pavilion for the championship. De La Salle is the defending Northern California Division I champion, but St. Mary’s will be fired up to play on the Bay Area’s biggest stage. 

“We’ve been wanting De La Salle all season,” Freeman said. “They’ve been ranked ahead of us, and we have a chance to prove everyone wrong.” 

Lady ’Jackets take it easy, still get by San Leandro 

The Berkeley High girls’ basketball team gave an uninspired effort on Friday night against San Leandro, but it was still enough for an easy 59-46 victory in the North Coast Section Division I semifinals. 

The top-seeded Lady ’Jackets face No. 2 Pittsburg tonight at Haas Pavilion for the NCS title. The game will start at 6 p.m. 

Berkeley got 15 points and 10 rebounds from senior forward Sabrina Keys and 11 points from senior guard Angelita Hutton.  

The ’Jackets were bigger and faster than the Lady Pirates, but they didn’t force as many turnovers as usual, tallying just two steals in the game. But Berkeley’s defense was still solid as they held Pittsburg to 15-for-63 (24 percent) shooting from the floor. Guard Jen King led the Pirates with 14 points, but shot just 5-for-22 as her team’s primary offensive weapon. Jackie Levesque scored 12 points for Pittsburg. 

The ’Jackets jumped out to a 16-2 lead in the first quarter, and Natasha Bailey hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 19-4 edge at the first break. Pittsburg managed to cut the deficit to eight points at 25-17 just before halftime, but would get no closer. They started the third quarter with a 1-for-16 shooting slump, letting the ’Jackets take a 22-point lead. The Pirates refused to let up, however, fouling and scrapping for points until the bitter end. 

Berkeley head coach Gene Nakamura waited until there was a little more than a minute left in the game to bring in his five promoted junior varsity players. The squad, which outscored first-round opponent McKinleyville to end the game, ran even with Pittsburg, 7-7.

A sixth-grade student brought a clip with several bullets to Longfellow Middle School earlier this week, according to school and police officials. 

Longfellow Principal Bill Dwyer said the student, who has been suspended, got the clip from an uncle’s gun. 

“I think it was just foolishness,” he said. “We weren’t aware of a violent threat, or any plan.” 

Lt. Cynthia Harris, spokesperson for the Berkeley Police Department, said the student was booked. But, as a first-time offender, she said, the student will likely be referred to Alameda County’s Youth Court program. 

The program, which stages mock trials run by youth, generally sentences offenders to community service.  

Editor: 

I read in the Planet that Councilmember Polly Armstrong is leaving. I know for most people she will be remembered as “the orange flag lady.” 

However, from someone who is admittedly single-issue focused, I honestly believe Harrison Park (and I imagine a number of other things) would not be there except for her willingness to support the project. 

Very early in our effort to get Harrison Park developed we had our usual crowd of kids and parents waving their green “We Need More Playing Fields” signs. And the council was all smiles as child after child came to the microphone.  

At 11:30 that night, the once packed audience now nothing but a few stragglers, the council took up the discussion of the park. 

One councilmember talked about how expensive the park was going to be, several said nothing. There was a lull in the conversation. And Polly spoke, “When all these people were in front of us we were more than happy to indicate we supported their cause. Now that they aren't here we don't have much to say. Well, I for one think we need these playing fields and I think we owe it to these kids and parents to give them what they have asked for.”  

The council voted to option the land and the process of Harrison Park was started.  

So the children and adults who play on these and other fields in the City of Berkeley, we owe you a debt that can never be repaid. You made a difference.  

Sorry to see you go.  

Doug Fielding 

Chairperson  

Association of Sports Field Users 

NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time in five years, no black reporter was among the top 25 on the network evening news programs in 2001, as measured by the amount of stories they reported, according to a study released Thursday. 

Byron Pitts of CBS and Pierre Thomas of ABC were tied for 28th place with 72 appearances on their news programs, said the study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs. 

Only one other black reporter — Randall Pinkston of CBS — was in the top 50, the center said. A year earlier, two black reporters made the top 10. 

Overall, the study found that the number of stories reported by all minorities and women were up slightly over 2000. Eighty-eight percent of the stories were reported by whites and 75 percent by men, the report said. 

The most visible network news reporter last year was John Roberts on CBS, who reported 177 stories. Robert Hager was the leader at NBC with 159 stories, followed by Terry Moran’s 138 stories on ABC, the center said. 

EUGENE, Ore. – Cal had a chance to extend its season on a long Jackie Lord 3-point shot, but UCLA held on to eliminate the Golden Bears, 46-42, in the first round of the Pac-10 Women’s Basketball Tournament. 

The Bruins held a 45-42 lead with eight seconds remaining, when Lord took a deep shot that could have tied the game. But she missed, the ball fell to UCLA’s Whitney Jones, who was fouled and made one of two free throws to ice the game. 

Cal ended its season with a 7-21 record (2-16 in the Pac-10), while UCLA improved to 9-19 (4-14). The Bruins, who swept Cal in three games this season, moved on to play Stanford in the second round of the tournament. 

“It was so low-scoring, it might not have been a great game from a fan perspective,” Cal coach Caren Horstmeyer said, “but from the athletes’ perspective, I think you saw a great game with two teams that battled.” 

Cal lost despite a strong performance by senior center Ami Forney, who had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds in her final college game.  

The Bears did come out strong, taking a 16-14 lead as they battled a tough UCLA 2-3 zone. Early on, the Bears did everything Horstmeyer wanted them to do – get points in transition, reverse the ball, even make a rare 3-pointer. Cal also tied a season high with 16 steals. 

“I thought our team was a little nervous,” UCLA coach Kathy Olivier said. “We played them twice and beat them twice. We felt like Cal had nothing to lose.” 

“Early in the game we played our gameplan,” Horstmeyer said “and then we fell into exactly what UCLA wanted us to do. Where we lacked a little bit was our shot selection.” 

Cal shot poorly for the third time this year against UCLA, making just 16 of 59 shots for a 27.1 field goal percentage. 

UCLA shot just 30.4 percent itself but got a virtuoso performance from reserve guard Gennifer Arranaga, who scored a game-high 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from the free throw line. 

Arranaga scored on a variety of jumpers and drives to the basket, often finishing UCLA fast breaks or secondary breaks. 

“Nat [Nakase] was telling me to run,” Arranaga said. “I’ve got a nickname, Speedy Gonzales, to live up to on the team.” 

In the second half, with Cal up 30-26, UCLA slapped the Bears with a 13-0 run sparked by seven points from Arranaga. 

Cal fought back to within 43-42 with a 12-4 run. 

Forney, along with reserve guard Janet Franey, are the lone seniors on this year’s squad. 

“We had a great career, even though we didn’t win,” Forney said. “I don't think it was as bad as people think. I like to use it as a positive, because we had to fight through tough situations.”

Union reps want city to come back to the bargaining table 

Berkeley fire fighters want the city to know they are serious about renegotiating their 2000-2004 contract.  

They showed up in full force at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, making a sea of blue several rows deep. Several fire fighters stood up to testify to the dedicated service and bravery of their colleagues in order to convince the city to give them a fair shake. 

When the fire fighters negotiated their compensation package in 2000, they agreed to give up 7.75 percent of their wages each year to qualify immediately for a new benefits package enacted by the state of California called “3 percent at 50.”  

In this new California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), retirement benefits would amount to a certain percentage of a public safety officer’s highest year of earnings, determined by multiplying 3 percent times the number of years of service. The previous system gave public safety officers 2.5 percent at 50. 

“At the time we were negotiating with the city, we knew that to enjoy the benefits, it would not be free. We’d have to give something up,” said Rick Guzman, who is president of the Berkeley Fire Fighters Association and has been a fire fighter for 16 years. 

So Berkeley firefighters went two years with no raises – not even cost-of-living adjustments – so that members who were on the verge of retirement in 2000 could take advantage of the new program. 

But when the police department settled their contract a year later, the city agreed not to trade cost-of-living adjustment raises for the CalPERS benefits. 

“Basically, the cops got an increase in salary and the city to pay for CalPERS,” said Guzman. 

But Randolph Files, president of the Berkeley Police Association, did not see it this way. “There was a trade-off of money versus time,” he said.  

Although the two unions went into negotiations together, the fire fighters separated to negotiate a contract that would put the benefits in place in July 2000. Police officers’ benefits do not kick in until July of this year. Moreover, the police officers’ contract is also six-years long, while the fire fighters’ is four. 

“You’re comparing oranges and jet-skis,” said David Hodgkins, Employee Relations Officer for the city. 

“Everyone pays for it in one way or another. When you’re bargaining with unions, they see their interests differently. They carve up the money in different ways,” he said. 

Nevertheless, said Guzman, “We’re pissed.” The fire fighters want to bring the city back to the bargaining table. 

A “zipper clause” in contract negotiations, however, says that both sides must agree to come back to the table. The city can only re-enter negotiations if the City Council gives Human Resources the go-ahead. This is why the fire fighters were at Tuesday night’s meeting. 

Although Mayor Shirley Dean proposed a resolution on Tuesday that would have immediately granted fire fighters a 7 percent pay raise effective this July, she withdrew her proposal. The City Council instead adopted Kriss Worthington’s proposal that the City Manager consider an “equitable policy in implementing new state retirement rules for firefighters and for all city employees” in the city’s regular budget process. 

The union is now preparing information for city officials that will compare their compensation packages to those of other fire departments in the Bay Area. Guzman said it should be in the city’s hands by next week. 

Fire fighters will know by April whether the City Manager puts their raise in his recommendations. The budget will be finalized in June by a City Council vote.  

“This is super-fast-forward in government time for something that’s going to cost nearly a million dollars,” said Worthington. 

Although he said he was sympathetic to the fire fighters’ request at the Tuesday meeting, he could not give them the money on the spot. 

“That would not have been fiscally responsible. As elected officers know, there’s no instant gratification in government,” he said. 

Hodgkins would not comment on whether he thought the existing contracts were fair or whether he wanted to re-open negotiations. 

“I think we have a contract and I will abide by the conditions therein,” Hodgkins said. “I will do as the council directs.” 

This isn’t enough for fire fighters. “They’re dragging their feet,” said Guzman. “First it was that, then it was this. Now they say they don’t have the money to do it,” said Guzman. 

“I had a bad feeling about it when we signed the contract. I was afraid they would give it to the cops and change it on us.” 

But the police officers, for their part, hope that the difference in contracts does not cause bad blood between the two unions. “They’re a labor union, so we support them,” said Files. “If they’re treated unfairly, we ask the city to treat them fairly, just like any labor group.” 

Editor: 

Berkeley High School has in recent years been plagued by arson attacks, achievement gaps, ephemeral principals and countless other problems. The only thing holding the school together is the fantastic education that it offers to its students.  

Well, it seems that now that's gone too. 

The Berkeley School Board's decision to reduce the schedule to six periods will have a devastating effect on the students' education. Double-period science — a program that is likely to be cut — allows students to take first-year advanced placement classes, has consistently given students an advantage when applying to college, and it offers a great understanding of the sciences.  

The elective program, which provides students with a diversity of skills and includes classes in art, music, and dance, will also suffer.  

Everything that is great about a Berkeley High education will disappear and Berkeley High will become indistinguishable from any other high school in the nation.  

It is obvious that the school board needs to cut back on something — but is taking away what makes Berkeley High unique the answer?  

Gordon Jenkins 

student of Berkeley High school. 

LOS ANGELES — Two former strategists for President Clinton were hired as consultants for the Screen Actors Guild during negotiations with the Association of Talent Agents. 

Mark Fabiani and Christopher Lehane began working for the actors union in January. Fabiani was behind the scenes while Clinton fought off allegations in the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky investigations. Lehane worked in the White House counsel’s office while Clinton was in office. 

Both men were asked to consult for the union in case either an impasse or agreement was struck with the talent agents group, SAG officials said Thursday. 

The two groups reached a tentative agreement last weekend that would allow talent agencies to make and receive investments in production companies. 

The agreement would loosen existing rules, in place since 1939, to protect actors from exploitation by agents working on behalf of producers or studios. 

Under the proposed contract, independent production companies and large advertisers would be allowed to invest as much as 20 percent in a talent agency. Movie studios and television networks still would be banned from owning or investing in a talent agency. 

The deal still must be approved by SAG’s board of directors and membership and ratified by the talent agencies.

The Berkeley High Yellowjackets scored five runs in the first three innings, then held on to beat California High 5-3 on Friday in the ’Jackets’ season opener at San Pablo Park. 

Junior Sean Souders threw five innings for the win, giving up one earned run on four hits while striking out six. Ethan Friedman earned the save by retiring the last four Grizzly batters. 

Berkeley scored three of their runs in the second inning. Bennie Goldenberg led off with a walk from California starter Adam Brizentine, and Jason Moore’s grounder was kicked by shortstop Spike McDougal. Designated hitter Jeremy Riesenfeld followed with a single to bring home Goldenberg. Brizentine plunked Sam Geaney with his next pitch, but Geaney was forced at second on Lee Franklin’s grounder, with Moore scoring on the play. Rightfielder Jeremy LeBeau drove in the last run with a double to the gap in right, giving the ’Jackets a 4-0 lead. 

Berkeley tacked on another run in the next inning, with Clinton Calhoun singling, stealing second and scoring on a single by Moore. 

That was all the lead Souders and the bullpen would need. Souders was solid through five innings, giving up just one run, a homer by California first baseman Andrew Worswick. Coming out to start the sixth, however, Souders surrendered two straight singles, prompting Berkeley head coach Tim Moellering to pull him in favor of Andre Sternberg, one of Moellering’s four southpaws.  

Sternberg struck out Mike Ancin, but walked McDougal to load the bases. Sternberg’s bore down to get Worswick to hit a comebacker, getting the force at the plate for the second out. 

Sternberg’s first pitch to the next batter, Justin Langro, was wild, allowing a run to score. Sternberg hurt his throwing shoulder on the pitch, the same shoulder that kept him out much of last season, and left the game.  

“I have four outstanding lefties, so I’m not too worried about having a righty in there,” Moellering said. “But I am concerned if we lose Andre for any length of time.” 

Moellering called on Friedman, yet another lefty. Langro hit a grounder up the middle that second baseman Franklin stopped with no throw to first. McDougal scored, but Franklin caught Worswick too far past third base and caught him in a rundown, with Friedman applying the final tag. 

Friedman set down the Grizzlies in order in the seventh inning for the save.

With Election Day approaching, California Secretary of State Bill Jones is predicting that only about 36 percent of eligible voters will bother to cast ballots on Tuesday. 

Local Bay Area officials interviewed today have similarly low expectations. 

Jones cited a number of factors as contributing to the poor expected turnout, including the earliest primary in state history, the lack of high-profile ballot measures and the international war on terrorism. 

“Because of the competition for voter attention, the early election date and a variety of other factors, we estimate that the turnout of registered voters this March will be approximately 36 percent,” Jones said. 

He said a later than usual February Super Bowl and the recently concluded Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City also may have siphoned some of the interest away from the election. 

Jones said the tight three-way race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination could help elevate turnout though. In addition, he said that the removal of more than 2 million ineligible voters from the rolls in recent years should help provide a more accurate depiction of voter participation. 

Contra Costa County elections officials said today they are anticipating a turnout of roughly 40 percent on Election Day. Alameda County Assistant Registrar Elaine Ginnold said they are expecting a 38 percent turnout. 

“It’s disappointing considering we spent six months preparing for it,” Ginnold said. 

San Francisco Department of Elections Director Tammy Haygood, however, said today that she does not prognosticate. 

“We don't predict turnout, we count votes,” Haygood said. “We’re just encouraging people to vote.” Haygood joined Jones in reminding voters that the election will operate as a "modified primary'' because of the U.S. Supreme Court's invalidation of California's open primary initiative. 

As a result, voters who are registered with a political party may vote only for candidates in their own party. Voters who declined to state a party affiliation when they registered to vote may request the ballot for one of the four political parties that have opened up their primary to nonpartisan registrants. Those are the Democratic, Republican, American Independent and Natural Law partiesHaygood also reminded voters to check their polling places, which might have changed due to redistricting.Election information is available online at http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections.htm.

Editor: 

Because of my own involvement in Berkeley schools, I am very interested in the candidates for our representative on the Alameda County Board of Education.  

I don't exactly understand what role the candidate elected will play as the representative from our area.  

The reason for my confusion, is because in all of my years as an active parent in the Berkeley schools, I have never met the incumbent. And I have only actually seen him once.  

That was when Alameda County Superintendent Sheila Jordan was presenting her budget concerns to our school board. He wasn't actually involved in the presentation, but he did introduce himself. 

Personally, I expect more from a candidate.  

I expect that person to spend time observing our schools, as well as our board. How else can they make intelligent decisions in regard to education?  

I want him/her to develop the kind of relationship with our principals and administration that foster a line of communication that might help us to foresee problems, before we are in the kind of budget situation we're in now.  

And I believe that Jacki Fox Ruby is that person.  

She has played a very active role in our schools in the past, and I am really glad that she has found a way to continue in that role.  

Jacki knows our schools and better understands our needs.  

Mark A. Coplan 

Willard Parent 

ANAHEIM — Responding to residents’ complaints that fireworks shows at the Disneyland Resort are polluting their neighborhood, a regional agency will test air particles to collect any residue. 

The South Coast Air Quality Management District will place glass plates in neighborhoods upwind and downwind from the resort later this month to determine whether ash and other products such as aluminum and magnesium are being left behind. 

“If we have some sort of measurable residue, we’ll make a determination whether additional sampling should be done and what type,” said Carol Coy, AQMD’s deputy executive officer of engineering and compliance. “This is just the first step.” 

Disney has increased the number of fireworks shows over the past two years. Park officials said they support the testing to ensure compliance with state regulations. 

People who live near the resort believe long-term exposure to the fireworks residue may be harmful. 

“I think there needs to be some follow up for people who have been exposed to this for a long time,” Anaheim resident Amy Davis said. “Nobody is tracking the health issues.”

Urban agriculture, freedom of the press and nationalized health care. 

These were just a few of the issues explored by a delegation of seventeen local environmentalists and journalists in a recent nine-day trip to Cuba. 

“It’s really interesting to see an alternative way of doing things,” said Beck Cowles, program manager for the Ecology Center, a Berkeley-based environmental group. “Cuba has a lot of lessons for us.” 

The Ecology Center co-sponsored the Feb. 15-24 journey with the Media Alliance, a left-leaning San Francisco resource and training center for activists and journalists. 

The group, which spent time in the capital city of Havana and the rural province of Pinar del Rio, visited a pair of radio stations, a facility which produces chamomile and aloe vera for medicinal purposes, and a local doctor participating in Cuba’s system of nationalized health care. 

But Martin Bourque, executive director of the Ecology Center, which runs Berkeley’s twice-weekly Farmers Market, said Cuba’s support of urban agriculture was particularly interesting. 

Bourque, editor of a new book called “Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance: Transforming Food Production in Cuba,” said the island country began an intensive urban agriculture program in the early-1990s, during the height of an economic recession. 

With the countryside struggling to produce and transport an adequate supply of crops to the cities, he said, the government gave away land to urban residents willing to produce crops. Today, according to Bourque, one-third of Cuban produce comes from city gardens. 

Bourque praised the city of Berkeley and the Berkeley Unified School District for passing innovative food policies that emphasize local production. But, he added that Berkeley could learn something from the more comprehensive Cuban model.  

“What we don’t have is a real political will, or institutional support,” said Bourque, noting that Havana has 200 city employees dedicated to urban agriculture, while Berkeley’s only professional is a specialist at UC Berkeley’s Extension School. 

Rebeka Rodriguez, program director for Media Alliance, said the radio stations the group visited made do with limited resources. 

“My impression of the stations we visited is that they were extremely underfunded, poorly-equipped stations,” she said, “and despite these obstacles, they were able to disseminate information broadly.” 

A station the group visited in Vinales, a small town in Pinar del Rio, made use of simple cassettes and a telephone to transmit news to a larger station in the city of Pinar del Rio for broadcast, Rodriguez said.  

Bourque said the exchange of ideas in the press was limited, but not as limited as some Americans might think. 

“Any fundamental critique of the government isn’t reported,” he said. “But there is a lot of debate within the system. I think that’s something people miss when they say, ‘oh, it’s state-run media.’ ” 

Bourque added that the Cuban media does not dig into the personal lives of politicians like the American media. 

“It’s refreshing. Why should we spend so much time on a president’s personal life,” he asked, in reference to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, “when there are such pressing public issues?”

Philly lures fugitives with phony mail, cash promises 

PHILADELPHIA — They thought they were getting money owed to them by the city. Instead, more than six dozen fugitives got arrested. 

Using a phony city agency and fake letters promising big bucks, Philadelphia police lured 80 fugitives into a trap over the last two months. 

Detectives sent out letters from the fictional Office of Municipal Audit and Disbursement to 549 fugitives wanted for crimes ranging from burglary to fraud. The letter said that the agency owed the fugitives $1,320.27 in unpaid benefits and they could get the check at the office. 

A fake office was set up near other city offices. When the cash-motivated fugitives arrived in the waiting room, a staff member would ask them to go into the next room to sign for the checks. 

Instead of a fat check, the room was full of detectives waiting to escort the fugitive into a police car. 

“It was just con men being conned. Greed took over,” Sgt. Joe Motto said. 

Arrests included 27 people charged with assault and battery, nine charged with burglary and 10 charged with robbery. 

Farmer claimed to lost herd 

PITTSBURGH — Call it the “Little Bo Peep” ploy. 

A dairy farmer has admitted he tried to hide his assets, including 200 head of cattle, from creditors and federal agents by claiming he couldn’t find them. 

Vern E. Over has pleaded guilty to concealment of assets and bankruptcy fraud for selling livestock and equipment from his Clarion County dairy farm and then telling a bankruptcy trustee and FBI agents he didn’t know where they went, according to court documents. 

Over has also agreed to tell authorities what happened to the missing property. 

According to court documents and his lawyer, Michael Witherel, Over sold some of the items after he filed for bankruptcy in 1994. 

When his western Pennsylvania farm was being liquidated a year later to pay creditors, a bankruptcy trustee couldn’t count the cattle, tractors, wagon, plows and other farm equipment because they were gone. 

“There’s no question that things were sold,” Witherel said. “He’s a good and decent man who shouldn’t have done what he did and he’s going to pay the price.” 

Over could face five years in prison under sentencing guidelines, but Witherel said he would likely get no more than 1 1/2 years. 

Ball club bans bin Laden from their bobbleheads dolls 

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Bobblehead dolls are a popular promotion at ball games, but a minor league baseball team decided that Osama bin Laden’s head doesn’t belong on them. 

The Hagerstown Suns, an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, rejected a proposed bin Laden bobblehead giveaway promotion Thursday after an Internet poll indicated most people would find it distasteful. 

The team had considered a promotion in which fans entering the ballpark would be given the dolls and then be invited to smash them. 

Of 194 responses, 72 percent considered the idea “way out of line,” according to the team’s Web site. 

“We’re really glad the fans got online and voted,” team general manager Kurt Landes said. He said the club’s staff came up with the idea. 

Bobblehead manufacturer Alexander Global Promotions, of Bellevue, Wash., gets requests every week for bin Laden dolls, company chief executive Malcolm Alexander said. 

“The answer from us consistently has been no,” he said. 

Idaho elevates their potatoes 

BOISE, Idaho — At the prompting of fourth graders, Idaho’s famous potatoes are being elevated to the top of the vegetable heap. 

The state Senate unanimously sent Gov. Dirk Kempthorne a bill that would designate the potato as Idaho’s official state vegetable. 

The bill, passed Thursday, had already been approved by the House. 

For decades, Idaho has led the nation in potato production, making spuds practically synonymous with the state. Most license plates are graced with the slogan “Famous Potatoes.” 

Now the potato joins other official state symbols like the mountain bluebird, cutthroat trout and Appaloosa horse. 

The idea for the official vegetable came from fourth-grade classes studying Idaho history at Grand View Elementary School. The children wrote to 200 other fourth-grade classes around the state and to all 105 legislators for their support. 

LOS ANGELES — Richard Riordan lashed out at Bill Simon as a “sanctimonious hypocrite” Friday, harshly criticizing the former friend who has overtaken him with just days to go before the GOP gubernatorial primary. 

“Those are the words my mother taught me to say about people who carry religion on their lapel but go around telling untruths about other people,” added the moderate former Los Angeles mayor, whose maverick bid to broaden the Republican Party is flagging in the face of Simon’s traditional conservative campaign. 

As recently as Sunday, Riordan laughed off a question about whether he remains friends with Simon, who attends Catholic church with him in Santa Monica and who Riordan encouraged to run for governor before getting in the race himself. 

Since then a Field Institute poll showed Simon overcoming a 33-point deficit to overtake Riordan 37-31 among likely voters in the March 5 GOP primary, and the campaigns have been relentlessly on the attack. Simon has slammed Riordan for consorting with Democrats and accused him of being soft on taxes, and Riordan has hit back by questioning Simon’s business practices and his failure to register as a Republican until 1992. 

Riordan put to rest Friday any doubts about his relationship with Simon. 

“He has the sanctimonious gall to say he’s a good friend of Dick Riordan’s — ’but I want to tell you what Dick Riordan’s all about’ — and then he starts lying about me,” Riordan told a Hollywood press conference. “This is not friendship. This is sanctimonious hypocrisy.” 

In fact Riordan’s campaign was first in airing a negative attack ad. 

Simon strategist Jeff Flint said the multimillionaire investor still considers Riordan his friend, and that the two will probably continue to ski together since they own houses close to each other in Sun Valley, Idaho. 

“Bill Simon’s not going to address the increasingly false and desperate charges from Dick Riordan,” Flint said. “It’s clear he’s only lashing out because he’s fading in the polls.” 

In another sign Riordan’s campaign is in trouble, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday that the White House has reached out, through intermediaries, to Simon. 

The Times said a Washington lobbyist with ties to the White House approached Simon strategists this week to discuss an appearance with the president if Simon wins the primary. 

Riordan has said President Bush personally urged him to run, and he has long been seen as the candidate with the blessing of an administration eager to install a Republican governor in the nation’s most populous state. He said Friday that nothing has changed in his relationship with the White House. 

“The White House is reaching out to both of us. This is a close race. They will support whoever wins this nomination because we have to get rid of (Democratic incumbent) Gray Davis,” Riordan said. 

Simon confirmed contacts took place but declined to elaborate. 

“There have been contacts between our staffs, and the White House will work with whoever is the winner of this election,” Simon said. 

Asked how he felt about it, Simon said, “You have to say, wow.” But he added, “At the end of the day I tell all our guys and all our gals, you know, stay humble.” 

Sex offender info to be made available in 13 languages 

SAN JOSE — Public information on registered sex offenders now will be available in 13 languages and will be updated daily, Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Friday. 

Law enforcement agencies will be able to obtain and give daily updates of Megan’s Law information by accessing a Department of Justice databasa via a secure Intranet connection. The new Web-enabled application replaces a CD-ROM produced by the attorney general’s office and distributed monthly to law enforcement. 

In addition to English the information will be available in Arabic, Armenian, Cambodian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese. 

Suspect in Oakland shooting connected to another homicide 

SAN FRANCISCO — A man critically wounded by San Francisco police is a suspect in the killings of seven people, including a witness shot six days after testifying in a gang homicide case, police said Thursday. 

Ramon Sapp, 24, was shot at least six times Wednesday and was in critical condition Thursday night. 

San Francisco police believe Sapp has ties to a drug gang in the city’s Western Addition neighborhood. Sapp is also a suspect in the January 2001 shooting death of Dustin Thomas. 

Albany schools to layoff teachers to reduce $1.5m shortfall 

ALBANY — The Albany Unified School District will lay off teachers and administrators, and reduce the number of class periods, to slash $1.5 million from its budget. 

School officials say an array of reasons — from a fluctuating enrollment during the past several years to overly optimistic salary settlements with various unions last year — have forced them to take these steps. 

“The way school districts work, you’re supposed to keep a 3 percent reserve,” said Albany school board member Marsha Skinner. “This year, we’re going down into our reserve, even with cuts we’ve already made.” 

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. warplanes and helicopter gunships bombarded suspected al-Qaida hide-outs in Afghanistan’s eastern mountains Saturday, opening a new offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida believed regrouping there, Afghan officials said. 

On the ground, about 600 Afghan and American forces moved into the same Shah-e-Kot mountains Saturday, said Safi Ullah, head of the local governing council, reached by telephone in Gardez, 20 miles north of the attack. 

In neighboring Pakistan, authorities sealed off the border along the mountains to block any fleeing al-Qaida from escape. 

The U.S. Central Command in Florida refused comment because the operation was ongoing. 

There were no details of any ground fighting, although bombing was continuing into Saturday, Safi Ullah said. The majority of the ground forces were Afghan, Safi Ullah said. 

Commander Wazir Khan Zedran, talking to the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press, was quoted as saying al-Qaida had opened fire with mortars from the mountains, even though they hadn’t yet come under ground attack. 

U.S. B-52 bombers have been out in force in recent days over Paktia province, site of the new reported offensive. 

Afghan officials say al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are regrouping there and just over the border in Pakistan, urging the faithful to wage holy war against U.S. forces. 

U.S. officials and Afghan sources estimate 4,000 to 5,000 foreigners who fought for the Taliban and al-Qaida remain inside Afghanistan. Many of them are believed to be in Paktia and other provinces along the Pakistan border. 

They are receiving support from a variety of groups, including Kashmiri separatists, Islamic militants in Pakistan and some former officials of Pakistan’s intelligence service, according to Afghan sources. 

In Pakistan, a senior government official at the Pakistan border town of Miran Shah said Saturday that troops have blocked all routes to prevent escape of any al-Qaida and Taliban fleeing the attack. 

The official, Javed Marwat, said a 60-mile strip with Afghanistan has been closed. 

A tribal elder in the area, Haji Rasool Khan, said by telephone that his Madakhel tribe would not give shelter to any al-Qaida on the run. 

The last major U.S. bombing in Afghanistan was in January, when airstrikes targeted regrouping Taliban and al-Qaida forces in the eastern Zawar region. In that strike, at least 18 civilians were confirmed dead before an aid group’s count was cut short by continued bombardment. Local officials have told The Associated Press that several dozen civilians had died, but no precise figures are available. At least 35 homes were destroyed. 

HAVANA — Cuban police in black berets entered the Mexican embassy early Friday and detained 21 young men who had crashed a stolen bus through the gates two days earlier and asked to be taken out of Cuba. 

The unarmed, specially trained police took action after Mexico asked Cuba to remove the men. The detainees, who authorities in both countries said were seized without putting up any resistance, were rushed away in trucks during the pre-dawn hours. 

While human rights activists expressed concerns about their fate, Mexican authorities said they believed the men had no grounds to fear political persecution and there was no risk to their lives. Mexico said the men did not ask for political asylum and wanted to emigrate for purely economic reasons. 

“These are young people facing a difficult economic situation, like many in Latin America,” said Gloria Abella of Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department. 

After commandeering a public bus, the men crashed the embassy gates late Wednesday night. Their forced evacuation about 30 hours later sent a strong message across the island: holing up in a diplomatic mission is not a sure ticket off the island. 

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A hunger strike by prisoners at this remote U.S. naval base seemed to lose momentum after the U.S. military agreed to allow the Taliban and al-Qaeda captives to wear turbans, as long as guards could inspect them at any time. 

Of the 300 terror suspects detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, 75 refused to eat lunch on Friday, military officials said. That number was down significantly from the peak of the hunger strike Thursday, when 194 prisoners declined lunch. 

The protest began Wednesday after guards removed a makeshift turban from a praying captive’s head. Military officials had previously banned turbans because they might be used to hide weapons. 

The military says the prisoners are fighters of the international al-Qaida terrorist network, believed responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, and the deposed Afghan Taliban regime that harbored it. Some have been held at the base in southeastern Cuba since Jan. 11. 

Detainees told officials the hunger strike was in response to two guards stripping a detainee of his turban during prayers Tuesday after the inmate ignored orders to remove it, Marine Maj. Stephen Cox said. He added that detainees have been issued prayer caps or can drape towels over their heads. 

The policy change on head coverings seemed to have little impact on those who continued their hunger strike Friday. 

Two inmates were taken to the camp infirmary Friday and treated for dehydration through intravenous drips, officials said. One ate and was taken back to his cell. The other refused to eat and remained in the infirmary. 

“We’re certainly not going to allow them to harm themselves or starve,” said Marine Capt. Alan Crouch, a spokesman for the detention mission. 

Even those declining food appear to be drinking water, said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Carter, another spokesman. 

In an address to prisoners Thursday night by Brig. Gen. Mike Lehnert, the Marine in charge of the detention mission, indicated there might be more to the hunger strike. 

“He told them at this point he could not tell them how long they will be here or what will happen to them in the future,” Cox said. 

“Gen. Lehnert also told the detainees that they will be judged fairly” when the time comes, Cox said. 

The new policy “was explained to the detainees, and they’ve talked back and forth to the commanders and the chaplain several times ... and we are hoping it will ease the tension,” Air Force Brig. Gen. John Rosa, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staffs, said Friday at the Pentagon. 

Friday afternoon, Camp X-ray was quiet, with detainees passing the time as usual — pacing in their chain-link cells, sitting or lying down. A few were interrogated in wooden buildings near their cells. They are not allowed to have lawyers. 

Tension has been building among the inmates, some of whom were held for months in Afghanistan before being brought to Guantanamo beginning seven weeks ago. 

In recent days, some have ignored a taped call to prayer and instead have picked individual detainees to announce and lead prayers, which Muslims do five times a day. 

A week ago there was “a disturbance” when a guard doing a random search of a cell inadvertently dropped a copy of the Quran, officials said. 

“There is an underlying tension associated with the uncertainty of their future,” Cox said. 

U.S. officials say they are determining the legal fates of the detainees. Those not tried by a military tribunal either would be prosecuted in a U.S. court, returned to their home countries for prosecution, released outright or held indefinitely. 

Some of Washington’s closest allies have criticized President Bush’s proposal to try some detainees before secret military tribunals empowered with the death penalty. 

The detainees come from 32 countries, several of which have asked that their nationals be returned home to face trial. 

“In some instances, and I won’t pick out a country, it is indeed likely that some of those detainees may go back to those countries,” Victoria Clarke, spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said at the Pentagon Friday. 

Amnesty International said the protest “highlights the dangers of the legal limbo into which the prisoners have been thrown” and underscores the “urgent need” for the United States to allow the prisoners due process, including the right to challenge their detentions. 

AHMADABAD, India — Hindu attackers stalked Muslims in the streets and set fire to their homes and shops Friday, pushing the death toll in India’s worst religious violence in a decade past 300. 

Officials said Saturday that a Hindu mob torched the Muslim village of Sardarpura late Friday, killing at least 27 people trapped inside their homes. The killings took the death toll in three days of carnage to 322. 

Press Trust of India news agency said police fired bullets in the air to scare away the mob, which regrouped as soon as the police patrol left. The mob set houses and shops on fire using cooking gas bottles, police said. 

The bloodshed has been largely confined to the western state of Gujarat, and has not spread across this vast nation despite a call for a general strike by Hindu nationalists. 

Some 900 soldiers deployed in Ahmadabad, a city of 3.5 million, where young Hindu men brandished swords and sticks Friday in a second day of looting and attacks triggered by a fiery assault on a train by Muslims.

You have to hand it to Michael Moore for bravery. At a time in which dissent has been sent to the back of the bus, Moore is insisting on his front-row seat. 

Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! (Regan Books, $24.95), a deliciously wicked read for those who like to see the comfortable hung, drawn and quartered, is the latest book by the blue-collar big mouth whose best known work is the documentary Roger & Me. With characteristic relish, Stupid White Men takes aim at “Thief-in-Chief” George W. Bush, fat-cat executives, general American ignorance, self-satisfied whites and Democrats who might as well be Republicans.  

Berkeley fans will get a chance to see Moore on Mar. 6 when he will be appearing at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley at 7:30 PM. Moore told the Planet he is looking forward to coming back to Berkeley, a place he admires for its “rich history of dissent and of politics and of ideas, though it’s not the place it used to be.” 

“I like Berkeley,” said Moore. “It reminds me of a city back home – Ann Arbor.” 

Moore’s book Stupid White Men is full of the same wisecracks. Social commentary is served up with the same funny-yet-disturbing “What Gives?” humor we have come to love in Moore’s work. In a prayer to “Lord (God/Yahweh/Buddha/Bob/Nobody),” for example, he writes, “We beseech You to make the children of every senator in the Mountain Time Zone gay–really gay.”  

Stupid White Men’s humor is even more biting because Moore has done his homework. When Moore writes, “Never, ever let someone fly you up in the air who’s making less than the kid at Taco Bell,” he knows what he is talking about. His research confirmed that commuter plane pilots’ starting pay can be as low as $13,000, which comes to about $9,000 after pilots pay for their own flight training and uniforms. 

Moore, who was writing the book last spring, also pointed the finger at Enron long before Kenneth Lay was publically outed. His book slams the energy company for running a big scam – and taking advantage of California in particular. 

“Look, Bush and Kenny Boy have a map of the state of California for target practice,” Moore told the Planet. “It’s the home state of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, but they hate it. They wrote it off in the last election. They knew it was going to go to the Democrats.” 

Moore’s essay on race relations, “Kill Whitey” is not as sharp as other parts of his book, however. Moore rightly points out that white people need to take more responsibility for slavery, the programming on FOX and the invention of the punch card ballot. But the mea culpa strikes an almost self-righteous note in parts. 

He also focuses mainly on blacks, to the exclusion of other minorities in today’s underclass, because, he writes, “African-Americans have been on the lowest rung of the economic ladder since the day they were beaten and dragged here in chains.” But recent scholarship has suggested that race and class do not map so neatly among color lines as they used to. In fact, by 1980, Harvard Professor William Julius Wilson had already written a landmark sociological study of urban blacks called The Declining Significance of Race. 

Moore’s most controversial chapter, though, is the “Dear George” letter in which Moore asks if the president if he is an illiterate, a drunkard and a felon. This sharp criticism almost prevented his book from being published at all. 

Stupid White Men was due to be shipped on Sept. 11 for sale on Oct. 2 when hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Moore and his publisher, Regan Books, an imprint of Harper Collins, both felt it was best to hold the book. 

But when his book had not been published by Dec. 2, Moore said he was wondering, “Where’s my book?” Turns out, Regan Books wanted Moore to rewrite up to 50 percent of his book because it was too harsh on the president. 

“I said, ‘I’m not rewriting 50 percent of one word. I feel the same way now as I did then. If you want me to rewrite it, I’ll just make it harsher,’” said Moore. 

Luckily some librarians from New Jersey came to his aid when they heard him speak at a private event. They organized an internet campaign, posting on list-serves and barraging the publishers with e-mail complaints. When trade magazines and the New York Post picked up the story, the publishers relented. 

Moore said he is very pleased that the book has been published without a single irreverent word of it altered, though he will be soon posting an additional chapter called “The Sad and Sordid Whereabouts of bin Cheney and bin Bush” on his website (www.michaelmoore.com). “People were nervous. That’s why I was afraid to put my book out,” explained Moore. “But it’s not good in a democracy to be afraid of dissent,” he added.  

“My biggest motivation for writing the book was to get people fired up and tell them not to give up.” 

The Associated Press 

REDWOOD CITY — A judge suspended criminal proceedings in the case of a Minnesota obstetrician accused of killing her 13-year-old son after the woman blurted out in court Friday that she wanted to represent herself and plead guilty to charges she stabbed the boy to death. 

Donna Anderson, 48, made the statements at the beginning of a hearing in the courtroom of San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Stephen Hall. The judge did not accept entry of Anderson’s guilty pleas and instead ordered another hearing to appoint two doctors to examine the woman to assess her mental status. 

Anderson had previously claimed a child pornography ring may be funding her defense against her will and is not allowing her access to a fair trial. 

During an interview Thursday with two San Francisco Bay area media outlets, Donna Anderson recited a rambling list of names, her work history and vague allegations. She refused to answer any questions and did not mention her son’s name in the prepared statement she read. 

Prosecutor Steve Wagstaffe said the woman’s statement’s Friday brought a quick end to the proceedings which were to resume Tuesday. Anderson was seeking attention for her case, Wagstaffe said. 

“Two days ago she was blaming some pornography ring for everything that’s happened and today she’s pleading guilty to two counts,” Wagstaffe said. 

Anderson is being held in the San Mateo County jail’s medical wing on charges she stabbed her son, Stephen Burns, to death.

The Associated Press 

PHILADELPHIA — The 1998 national tobacco settlement was supposed to end government-sponsored litigation against Big Tobacco. But some local officials, unhappy with the way states are spending the settlement money, are looking to the courts for help. 

At least two counties — one in Pennsylvania and another in Michigan — are pursuing lawsuits against the tobacco giants, arguing that they haven’t received their fair share of the $206 billion settlement. 

“Most of the money was supposed to go to help people. And now we’re building bridges with it,” said Larry Levin, an attorney representing Carbon County, Pa., in a suit against the tobacco industry. 

Levin’s firm is trying to organize a class-action lawsuit of Pennsylvania counties. So far, only Carbon County has signed on. 

The rural county in eastern Pennsylvania says it is entitled to millions of dollars from the state’s share of the tobacco settlement to treat sick smokers. The county has been promised $136,000 per year for anti-smoking programs. 

The dispute has led to an unusual alliance between the tobacco industry and the state of Pennsylvania, which plans to withhold Carbon County’s share of the settlement if it goes ahead with litigation. 

“The tobacco companies have paid to settle these claims,” said Sean Connolly, spokesman for state Attorney General Mike Fisher. “It would be unfair to have them pay over and over and over.” 

Under the terms of the national settlement, eight major tobacco companies agreed to pay 46 states for smoking-related health costs. Most states have used at least some of the money for programs unrelated to smoking and for closing budget gaps, leaving anti-smoking forces up in arms. 

A report released last month by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said that only five states are funding anti-smoking programs at the level recommended by the federal government. In Pennsylvania, lawmakers have earmarked just under $30 million per year for anti-smoking programs, out of an initial settlement share of $927 million. 

“The problem the counties are raising is indicative of what’s happening around the country,” said William V. Corr, executive vice president of the campaign. “People who want to address the tobacco toll aren’t getting substantial resources.” 

In the Detroit area, Wayne County, Mich., has been pursuing a lawsuit against the tobacco industry for the past three years. The suit hit a stumbling block last month, when the Michigan Supreme Court said the county was bound by the national settlement and not permitted to sue. But a federal judge has asked the high court to revisit the case. 

The national settlement insulated the tobacco industry from lawsuits by counties, cities and other political subdivisions. The settlement says that if a local government wins a judgment, the money will be deducted from the state’s share. 

Worried about that possibility, the Pennsylvania General Assembly last summer passed a law that punishes any local government that pursues legal action against tobacco companies. A county or city filing such a suit would not get any money from the tobacco settlement. Private hospitals, social service agencies and other groups entitled to tobacco money would also be penalized. 

“The General Assembly will not allow counties to double-dip,” Connolly said. “They can’t have it both ways, suing on their own behalf and still benefitting from the state’s settlement.” 

The law came into play last year when Lackawanna County in northeastern Pennsylvania sued seven major tobacco companies and two Pennsylvania cigarette distributors. The county claimed it was entitled to reimbursement for the cost of treating sick smokers at the county-run nursing home and prison. 

The county withdrew its lawsuit in October, a few months after the Legislature acted. 

“The state government just put the squeeze on the counties and forced local governments out of participation in lawsuits,” Lackawanna County Solicitor Joseph O’Brien said. “The state people wanted the ability to decide where the money went rather than let local government do it.” 

Bill Godshall, executive director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania, said anti-smoking forces sued three years ago to prevent the attorney general from signing the national settlement agreement in the first place. But the lawsuit was tossed out and subsequent appeals failed. 

“I don’t think (Carbon County’s) lawsuit has one chance of success,” Godshall said. “That train left the station three years ago.” 

SACRAMENTO — An autopsy has confirmed a Ukrainian immigrant accused of killing six family members died by hanging in his jail cell, officials said Friday. 

Sacramento County coroner Paul Smith said he expects a formal ruling that Nikolay Soltys committed suicide Feb. 13, but other details are pending the release of toxicology reports in about a week. 

The death is being investigated by the sheriff’s department that oversees the Sacramento County Jail and by the district attorney’s office that had been expected to prosecute Soltys. 

Soltys’ attorney, Tommy Clinkenbeard, has asked for an outside investigation by the attorney general’s office into whether jailers were negligent by not preventing his client’s death. 

Sheriff’s officials have denied any lapse in vigilance. 

At the Crossroads Trading Company, Nika Thomas fingers a pair of black leather boots and explains her recent job lay-off. Until last fall, she worked at IKON, an office-supply shop. Then the economy went south, and she was let go. She gave up her frequent shopping haunts.  

“I shop less now at stores like Macy’s and Nordstroms,” said Thomas, 23. She settles on the boots, a mid-length skirt and heads to the register. The total is $18. “Now I shop at consignment shops, second-hand stores; that sort of thing,” she said. 

She wasn’t the only fiscal conservative at Crossroads. The store trades in new and used clothing on College Avenue in Berkeley. It also buys old clothing for resale and sells a few items on consignment.  

“People come in and say, ‘I’ve just lost my job!’ said Crossroads manager Kristofer Velasquez. “But they’re still shopping.” 

While the recession has slowed business at most retail shops, Velasquez said that his business has been steady, if not improved. Customers said that Crossroads and other second-hand stores are reasonable compromises between expensive boutiques and lower-end thrift-stores. 

“People can still take care of their shopping addiction,” said Velasquez, “but not spend as much.” 

About half the shoppers on a recent Tuesday said they’d been laid off at some point. A few have been re-hired. All said they were worried about the sluggish economy.  

“My friends are scaling down,” said Matt Russell, as he browsed men’s jeans. “People are worried about the basics – paying bills, getting groceries.” 

California’s unemployment rate of 6.2 percent now tops the 5.6 percent national rate, and San Francisco’s unemployment is a record 7 percent, according to recent figures released by the state’s Employment Development Department. And a break from the recession, at least for California, is not in sight.  

So even at second-hand stores shoppers want bargains. 

“People are not buying as much expensive stuff,” said Emily Gautier, a Crossroads clerk, “it’s more the ten-dollar-and-under pile.” While the occasional Gucci hits the rack, prices rarely top $60 dollars, and most clothing at Crossroads is casual. Some is even a steal. The price for a pair of brown-velvet Gap-pants: nine dollars.  

It’s prices like these that drew Dianne Mighetto into the store on Tuesday. She had a baby last month and is searching for non-maternity blue-jeans. Her little girl gives her cause to celebrate, she said, but not to splurge. She has not lost work because of the recession, but it has worried her. Since it began, she said, “everything has changed.”  

“I am on a total budget,” she said, her arm cradling ten pairs of jeans. “I’m looking for one pair. These jeans are half-off, so that’s like $12.” Like many shoppers at Crossroads, she wants to find a bargain, but not look like she’s wearing one. The store sells used clothing that is “pleasing,” according to a flyer that outlines the store’s guidelines. It stipulates that it will only buy clothing that is “clean, without spots, holes or odors.” The store’s meticulousness sells. 

“It’s nice to cut corners and still get nice things,” said Mighetto. “That’s why I come here.”  

Others come hoping to off-load a bag of old clothes. They are recently unemployed and panicked, says Velasquez, and hope to make enough to “pay the rent.”  

Crossroads pays sellers 40 percent of the item’s selling price in the store. One woman left the shop on Tuesday with $30 dollars cash for two pair of pants, a suede top and a jean jacket. It’s a handy sum, but probably won’t cover a week’s groceries, never mind a month’s rent.  

But then, it all depends on the scale you work with. “There were a few people who worked at Levi’s and had thousands of dollars of free samples and clothing they’d bought with discounts,” said Velasquez. “Then they were laid off. So they brought them down here and sold them to us.”  

FRESNO — The families of 13 tomato pickers killed on their way home from work and two survivors are eligible for more than $2 million after a judge ruled that their commute was covered under workers’ compensation. 

In a decision made public Friday by the Worker Compensation Appeals Board, a judge ruled that the farmworkers were exceptions to a “going and coming” rule that prevents commuters from collecting workers’ comp benefits. 

Green Valley Ag, a farm labor contractor, and Terra Linda Farms were found liable to pay workers’ comp claims and death benefits to the victims of the Aug. 9, 1999 crash in Five Points, west of Fresno. 

“It’s been something that I’ve been waiting for,” said crash survivor Lucila Gonzalez, 23, who had several surgeries to repair her liver. “I cried a lot. They had to take me to the bathroom and shower me. I couldn’t move for three months.” 

The workers were headed home in the early morning when their van slammed into a big-rig truck that was making an illegal turn, killing all but two of the tomato pickers. 

The crash spurred reform of farm worker transportation vehicles, requiring seats and seat belts in vans. 

Judge Stephen Webster said the survivors could collect workers’ comp because they were required to use the labor contractor for transportation and both the labor contractor and the grower benefited from the transportation they were provided. 

Each family will be entitled to $200,000 in death benefits, said Robert Perez, the farmworkers’ attorney. The companies will also pay past medical bills and medical benefits for life. Gonzalez’ bills totaled $1.1 million. 

Javier Alabart, a lawyer for Green Valley Ag and its insurance company, said it was not immediately clear if his clients would appeal. 

He said the case was difficult because the law is slanted in favor of the workers and because the facts were so horrible. 

“It’s a heart wrenching case because you have relatively young people, hard working individuals working for minimum wage, with families here or in Mexico and they’re dead,” Alabart said. “There’s not much you can do about that.” 

Alabart emphasized that the Workers Compensation Appeals Board is a no-fault system and the judge did not blame the contractor or the farm. However in a final comment, the judge made a scathing remark about conditions for farmworkers. 

“We, as a society, should be ashamed to allow our fellow human beings to be treated in this disgraceful and obscene manner,” Webster said. 

SAN FRANCISCO — As they head toward Tuesday’s primary, the three major Democratic candidates for insurance commissioner are running TV ads that are triggering more sniping in one of the fiercely contested statewide races. 

In an ad for Assemblyman Tom Calderon that began running widely earlier this week, a woman speaking in sign language, “I’m sick of waiting for someone to take on the HMOs, so I’m voting for Tom Calderon.” 

The ad is misleading, according to Calderon’s opponents and consumer critics, because the insurance commissioner has little jurisdiction over the state’s major health maintenance organizations, or HMOs. The state Department of Managed Health Care, created in July 2000, is the HMO industry’s primary regulator. 

“It’s a tremendously deceptive claim,” said consumer activist Jamie Court, who has worked on several HMO reform bills in the Assembly. 

If he is elected, Calderon intends to push for changes that will give the insurance commissioner more power over billing disputes involving HMOs, said his spokeswoman Valerie Martinez. “It’s an issue important to California and an issue that hasn’t been addressed,” she said. 

The Department of Managed Health Care doesn’t agree with Calderon. “The governor created this department to protect patients’ rights and any retreat from that would be bad news for consumers,” said Daniel Zingale, the department’s director. 

The ads of Calderon’s chief opponents, former Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and former Assemblyman Tom Umberg, are also drawing criticism. 

Judge expects cases to be settled as lawyers start gathering millions of documents 

HOUSTON – Multibillion-dollar lawsuits against Enron Corp. officials and the company’s former auditor, Arthur Andersen LLC, will go to trial in December 2003, a federal judge has ruled. 

U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon in Houston told lawyers before filing the trial schedule that she expects the cases to be settled. But they have 18 months to gather millions of documents and prepare their cases if they take their claims to trial. 

“It’s something real now,” said Rod Jordan, 63, a member of the Severed Enron Employees Coalition. Jordan was among 4,500 workers abruptly laid off in December after Enron filed the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. 

He also is among hundreds of former workers, retirees and investors who filed lawsuits over millions of dollars in investments or 401(k) accounts that evaporated when Enron’s once-enviable stock price plummeted to less than a dollar. 

“Without a date, it was something that maybe would go to trial someday, maybe it won’t,” Jordan said Friday. 

Harmon said in the order filed late Thursday the cases have generated national attention given allegations of accounting abuses and Andersen’s role as Enron’s former outside auditor. She said she hoped an efficient resolution of the cases would change “the nation’s impression that the justice system grinds slowly in a Dickensian fashion.” 

Harmon also ordered Enron to provide plaintiffs with all documents the company has given Congress and the Labor Department, both of which are investigating the collapse. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department also are investigating. 

“We’ll continue to cooperate with all investigations and inquiries,” Enron spokeswoman Karen Denne said Friday. 

Harmon’s order addresses class-action lawsuits against current and former Enron officials and Chicago-based Andersen. 

Plaintiffs in the consolidated case are large investors, like the University of California regents, the lead plaintiff. They also include several state pension funds, Amalgamated Bank and some individual investors. 

Plaintiffs in the other actions are Enron employees and retirees. Those cases will be consolidated April 1. 

“The order sends a strong message that the judge wants to move quickly,” University of California spokesman Trey Davis said Friday. 

The plaintiffs are seeking more than $25 billion from Enron officials, including former chief executives Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling, and the auditing firm. 

Davis declined to say whether Arthur Andersen has offered a reported $750 million to settle claims with creditors, investors and employees. But other lawyers involved with the cases said Andersen had claimed that anything more would put the firm out of business. 

Andersen spokesman Patrick Dorton declined comment Friday beyond an earlier statement that “we think it is in the best interests of all parties to deal expeditiously and responsibly with what has occurred.” 

Randy McClanahan, one of the lawyers representing employees, called the reported offer “a good start,” but that he doubted it would be anywhere close to what plaintiffs eventually will demand. 

Anthony Sabino, a professor at St. John’s University and an expert in bankruptcy, oil and gas law, said Andersen’s efforts to settle the claims quickly show the firm wants to leave Enron behind and focus on its other clients. 

“Clearly this is damage control in the extreme,” Sabino said. “Right now, job one is to retain the very significant client base they have.”

RENO, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management formally withdrew its approval of a proposed cat litter mine on BLM land north of Reno Friday, but said the Oil-Dri Corp. could submit a revised plan. 

BLM officials said they were forced the withdraw their earlier record of decision because the project no longer is feasible after Washoe County rejected a special use permit this week for an accompanying processing plant on neighboring private land. 

Oil-Dri Corp. officials expected the move and already are making plans to submit a new proposal. John Singlaub, manager of the BLM’s district field office in Carson City, said the revised plan will require a supplemental environmental impact statement as well. 

Under the revised plan, the largest maker of cat litter in the world still would mine the clay in two open pits across about 300 acres of BLM land but likely would site the processing plant on federal land as well. 

Another option is to ship the raw clay material elsewhere for processing, company officials say. 

The Washoe County Board of Commissioners rejected the special use permit on a 3-2 vote late Tuesday night despite Oil-Dri’s claims that the county has no authority to block access to the company’s mineral rights on federal land under the General Mining Law of 1872. 

“One way or another, we’re going to mine, whether we have to go to district court or ship the clay out or whatever,” Oil-Dri Vice President Bob Vetere said after the vote. 

Opponents said the project could cause water shortages and would pollute the air and water, clog residential streets with truck traffic and ruin the rustic qualities of the Hungry Valley area, just 10 miles north of downtown Reno. 

“I really think this could end up being some kind of defining case on the 1872 mining law,” said Tom Myers, a hydrologist and executive director of the Great Basin Mine Watch who has been involved in numerous appeals challenging mining projects in Nevada. 

Commissioners Jim Shaw and Jim Galloway joined Chairman Pete Sferrazza in opposing the project, and Commissioners Joanne Bond and Ted Short supported Oil-Dri’s bid. Bond and Short said they fear Tuesday’s vote will mean the county will lose jurisdiction over the project if it is built on federal land. 

Oil-Dri officials say their project would produce about 100 jobs and generate $12 million annually for the local economy. The project is the result of a search started 20 years ago for a new source of raw material for West Coast customers who sell Oil-Dri cat litter under several brand names. 

“We’re businessmen,” Vetere told the commission Tuesday night. “We’re being told by our customers, the Chloroxes and the Wal-Marts of the world that they want this clay and they want it quick.”

Embattled accounting firm settles Arizona cases without admitting wrongdoing 

PHOENIX – Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm battling fallout from the collapse of Enron Corp., agreed Friday to pay $217 million to settle three lawsuits stemming from the 1999 collapse of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, an investment group. 

The foundation’s failure, the largest nonprofit bankruptcy in U.S. history, left 13,000 mostly elderly investors out $590 million. 

The settlement resolves a case brought by a bankruptcy trust for foundation investors that was suing Andersen in Maricopa County Superior Court for $155 million in compensatory damages. 

It also resolves a class-action against Andersen by former BFA investors, a civil action brought by the Arizona Corporation Commission, a state regulatory agency, and disciplinary proceedings brought against Andersen and some of its employees by the Arizona Board of Accountancy. 

The foundation was created in 1948 as a nonprofit religious entity to raise money for Southern Baptist causes. 

“These investors, many of whom are elderly, trusted the misleading financial statements audited by Andersen,” said Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano. “This agreement will allow Baptist Foundation victims to at least recover most of their investment.” 

A statement from Arthur Andersen said the firm made a business decision to settle the cases without admitting wrongdoing. 

“This settlement is an important step in building confidence in our firm,” the company’s statement said. 

The state’s lawsuit alleged that Andersen prepared financial statements that concealed huge losses that should have been red-flagged to alert investors. 

Warnings of potential trouble were ignored or inadequately investigated, allowing senior managers of the foundation to mislead the board of directors and to engage in fraud at the expense of investors, the suit said. 

Lawsuits against Andersen in the Enron case make similar allegations.

Dealer disappears without delivering $300,000 worth of merchandise 

WHITE LAKE TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Green packing popcorn, large boxes and a note saying “closed for inventory” are nearly all that is left of a ceramic-figurine store whose owner went out at lunchtime one day and never returned. 

Now, Stewart C. Richardson’s wife, the FBI and more than 100 customers who bought items like miniature statues of frolicking mice from him on eBay want to know where he went – and what happened to the money they say he collected for merchandise he never sent. 

A warrant was issued Thursday for Richardson’s arrest, accusing him of wire fraud. An FBI affidavit says Richardson devised a scheme on eBay to defraud customers, and the agency cites about 75 victims with a loss of about $163,000. But officials estimate there are more than 100 people who never got their ceramic figurines, for a loss of about $300,000. 

The alleged fraud stems from a Dec. 28-Jan. 4 auction of figurines from an apparently fictitious estate in Phoenix. Though pictures of the items were posted on the online auction site, customers say they came from catalogs. 

“We were really bidding on air,” said Jan Lebow of Virginia Beach, Va., who bought seven items totaling nearly $4,000. 

Lebow bought Wee Forest Folk figurines, as did many of the auction customers. The figurines – mostly mice in poses of different themes, such as holidays and sports – are a popular collector’s item and can go for hundreds of dollars apiece. Richardson also dealt in the more expensive Hummel figurines and Lladros. 

EBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said fraud on eBay is rare. “We’ve never had anything like this,” Pursglove said. 

Two customers say they each paid Richardson more than $20,000 for Wee Forest Folk figurines during the auction and also had arranged to meet Richardson in Phoenix on Jan. 18 to pick up the items, according to the FBI. Richardson never showed. 

Customers also say that after the auction ended, Richardson contacted the second-highest bidders on some items and told them the winner hadn’t paid so they could have the items, thus getting twice the money. 

Those bidding on eBay had no reason to be suspicious of Richardson – he had high ratings from past buyers, he had the bricks-and-mortar business, Retired Figurine Exchange, and he had been selling on eBay for several years. 

The feedback ratings let buyers and sellers judge how a person does business on eBay. Marten Halma of Poughquag, N.Y., checked out the ratings before buying six items for nearly $4,000 during the auction. 

“I didn’t really worry about sending him that amount of money because he seemed to have a good reputation,” Halma said. Halma and Lebow were able to recoup much of their money through their credit card companies. 

Richardson disappeared Jan. 17. On Jan. 22, customers began posting warnings about a possible eBay fraud. But there were still some positive messages from customers who bid on different auctions. One note from Jan. 23 read, “Terrific packaging!!, good communication, will buy from again!” 

Friends and associates of Richardson’s wife, Arlene Murray, say she was surprised and embarrassed by her husband’s disappearance. Murray owned a scrapbooking shop two doors down from her husband’s store; it, too, now has a “closed for inventory” sign. 

According to the FBI, Richardson, 60, also took $220,000 from a business account he shared with his wife, and $101,000 from an account she said she didn’t know about. 

Murray did not return calls. Two women inside the locked figurine store said they had no comment. The shop’s phone has been disconnected. White Lake Township is about 35 miles north of Detroit. 

Business owners in the small strip mall where Richardson kept his store say he rarely spoke to his neighbors and always had a dog with him. 

“I don’t even know if he had any kids, where he lived,” said barber shop owner Bobby Leist, who cut Richardson’s hair. “Usually after six years, you get to know them a little bit.” 

Richardson spent several years in a Michigan prison in the 1960s for various offenses, including theft and assault with intent to commit murder. 

Richardson’s former wife said she is not surprised he took off. 

“That’s what he did to me. Left a note on the table. Not only that, he took about $70,000 in antiques,” said Cathy Richardson, who was divorced from Stewart Richardson in 1992.

Troubled utility expected to pay off more than $5 billion in past due bills to avoid bankruptcy 

LOS ANGELES – More than a year after it began piling up debt to pay for electricity, troubled utility Southern California Edison is expected to pay more than $5 billion in past due bills Friday, freeing it from the threat of bankruptcy. 

Edison was expected to secure a loan from investment banks this week that, combined with cash on hand, will allow it to remove debt that has damaged the utility’s credit rating and kept it from being able to buy power for its customers. 

The state has been buying power for Edison and the state’s other two regulated utilities since last year. 

“Payment is contingent on closing the financing, but it is still our intent to make the payments tomorrow,” said Brian Bennett, vice president of external affairs for Edison International, SoCal Edison’s parent. 

Sometime Friday, Edison should pay approximately $5.5 billion to creditors. The utility will use $3.4 billion of cash on hand, plus about $400 million it collected from ratepayers in January and February. The remaining $1.6 billion will come from loans. 

The loans will be backed by Edison first mortgage bonds and will be repaid from money collected from ratepayers over the next year. 

Edison will pay for power bought from major power generators as well as smaller generators, known as qualifying facilities. 

Bondholders will also be paid. But under the terms of a settlement with the state, dividends to common stock holders will not be paid. 

Friday’s payments will not return the utility to creditworthiness or allow it to begin buying its own power. The utility estimates it will not recover its undercollection — the difference between the cost of power and what it was able to charge ratepayers — until sometime next year. 

Edison, the state’s second-largest utility, first fell into debt in January, 2001, when it defaulted on payments due for power delivered the previous November and December. It was the first time in the company’s 110-year history that it failed to pay its bills. 

Faced with the same power crisis caused by the state’s deregulation of utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest utility, which serves Northern California, filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2001. 

Edison chose not to follow that route and fought several times as groups of creditors threatened to force it into involuntary bankruptcy. 

The company negotiated a settlement with Gov. Gray Davis that would allow it to issue bonds in exchange for selling the state its share of California’s power transmission system. 

When that deal failed to gain legislative support, Edison settled a federal lawsuit against the California Public Utilities Commission. The settlement requires the state to maintain higher electricity rates until Edison recovers its undercollection. 

“We believe the settlement puts Edison on the path to creditworthiness and we welcome Edison paying off their past debts even earlier than scheduled,” said Terrie Prosper, a spokeswoman for the CPUC.

LOS ANGELES — A collection of writings attributed to Malcolm X has surfaced under mysterious circumstances and is scheduled for auction, despite protests from the late civil rights leader’s relatives, who claim ownership of the items. 

The potentially invaluable trove contains hundreds of photographs and documents spanning two decades, including handwritten speeches, a Quran Malcolm X owned, and four journals he kept during travels to Africa and the Middle East in 1964, the year before he was assassinated. 

The documents are “phenomenally valuable material,” said David Garrow, a civil rights historian at Emory University. “Compared to everything else that exists in terms of original Malcolm documents, the scope of this collection is maybe 25 times as great.” 

The journals, kept in small, spiral notebooks, are of particular importance because they cover the period when Malcolm X broke from the Nation of Islam and renounced racial separatism. 

“This is a major kind of transformative period in his life,” said Howard Dodson, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. “The trips to Mecca and to Africa were major factors in his rethinking many of his previous perspectives on issues of race, religion, of politics, of virtually everything.” 

Many believe the documents are authentic, but question the circumstances of their appearance. Catherine Williamson, director of fine books and manuscripts at Butterfields, said she could not reveal the owner, but noted it was not a family member. She said the documents were acquired by the owner at an auction held by a self-storage center. 

Joseph Fleming, an attorney who represents several of Malcolm X’s six daughters and the estate of his wife, Betty Shabazz, said he traced the sale of the documents to a Florida storage center, and is seeking to void the sale.  

He also intends to seek an injunction in California to prevent the March 20 auction by Butterfields and eBay, which owns Butterfields. 

Fleming said family members believed the documents and photographs were in their possession, and only learned otherwise when they got word of the auction. He said he has discovered how the documents ended up in the Florida storage center, but declined to give specifics or say where they were previously stored, citing the pending legal action. 

He said he planned to file court papers in Florida and California as early as Monday. 

“This is their property,” he said. “When you lose a father and a mother the way they’ve lost their father and mother, you cling to those things that represent the legacy of your family.” 

Shabazz died in 1997 of burns sustained in a fire set by her grandson. 

The materials have been separated into 21 lots, and Garrow and others said they were concerned the documents could be divided and purchased by private collectors who might not make them available to researchers. 

In response to those concerns, Butterfields said Thursday it will also offer the documents as a single unit. 

“It would be a travesty if it were in fact auctioned off piece by piece and scattered to the four corners of the world,” Dodson said. “Once documents of this kind are in private hands you don’t even know where they are (and) for scholars to access them becomes a virtual impossibility.” 

Williamson said scholars’ concerns are unfounded. “I think that’s almost like a paranoid fear that if it’s sold to a private collector it will never surface again,” she said. 

Williamson said she initially divided the documents into separate groups because she believed it would make them more affordable, allowing more groups to participate in the auction. 

“If you put something out there with a really huge price tag there might just be a handful of people who can participate,” she said. “It was always my intention to market this collection to scholars and institutions.” 

Dodson said the Schomburg Center, one of the New York Public Library’s research libraries, is trying to raise funds to purchase all of the documents. 

Dodson and Garrow said many scholars support that effort. 

“I don’t think anybody in the scholarly community would want to see a bidding war that would simply result in unjust enrichment of whoever is selling these things,” Garrow said. “Everybody in the scholarly community would be happiest if the entire set of documents were to go to the Schomburg Center.” 

The materials were previewed for the media Thursday at Butterfields in Los Angeles, and will be available for public viewing there this weekend. They will be previewed at Butterfields in San Francisco next weekend, then are scheduled to be auctioned in San Francisco and on the Internet. 

——— 

Eds: Minority Affairs Writer Deborah Kong contributed to this report. 

Smoking the good book 

MEDFORD, Ore. — Some prisoners at the Jackson County Jail haven’t exactly found religion in the Bible. 

They’ve discovered that pages ripped from the Bible make excellent rolling paper for smoking tobacco products and anything else they can get their hands on, jail officials said. 

Homemade cigarettes and tobacco are the most common form of contraband that correctional deputies find. But sauerkraut, lettuce leaves, coffee grounds and orange peels have also been smuggled out of the cafeteria, dried and substituted for tobacco. 

“It’s much more of a problem than drugs, although they still try that, too,” said jail Sgt. Dan Penland. “They do everything they can to find something to smoke.” 

The screening process for inmates’ mail has reduced the amount of contraband smuggled in over the years but the inmates can be creative. 

Holding it to catch ‘em in the act 

HERMOSA BEACH — To catch an alleged quarter thief at his coin-operated laundry, the owner of Espresso Wash staked out his business for hours, hardly eating or drinking so he wouldn’t have to go to the bathroom. And the plan paid off. 

Peter Buccoleri, a retired policeman, sat on a stool in a cramped space by a water heater for 14 hours last Thursday peering at his change machine and waiting to nab the alleged thief. 

Buccoleri said on Tuesday he saw a man slip a $20 bill into the change machine, then yank it back while the quarters poured out. 

“I snuck out and I told him, ’You are under arrest. Get your hands up against that wall,”’ Buccoleri recalled. 

“He said, ’I’ll give you your money back. I’ll give you your money back.”’ 

Police identified the alleged thief as XXX, a transient from Bulgaria. 

He was booked for investigation of burglary, and officers said they found about $325 worth of quarters in his car. 

——— 

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Police have recovered 15 tons of microwaveable popcorn, worth $50,000, that was stacked from floor to ceiling in a two-car garage. 

The 1,920 cases of popcorn were stolen a month ago along with an unmarked trailer from ConAgra Foods, the plant in Marion, Ohio, where it was produced, company officials said. 

James Conway Jr., 48, and his daughter, Jennifer, 22, both of Columbus, each were charged with one felony count of receiving stolen property. They were scheduled to appear Wednesday in Franklin County Municipal Court. 

ConAgra sent a tractor-trailer Tuesday to pick up the popcorn. The original white trailer is still missing, plant manager Tony Jones said. 

Police said they found the food while searching Jennifer Conway’s home because the elder Conway’s son has been charged in the Jan. 19 shooting death of an Ohio State University student. 

——— 

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Diane McCarthy has discovered how much it pays to clean up debris from her back yard. 

McCarthy found a box containing $1,300 stolen two weeks earlier from a Colchester High School hockey game. 

The Colchester High School Hockey Boosters had reported the theft to police, believing that the money was gone forever, Booster member Cheryl King said. 

McCarthy turned the treasure over to Burlington police, who returned the cash to the Booster club. 

“To get $1,300 back is absolutely amazing,” King said Monday. “It’s nice to know that there are some pretty honest people in the world.” 

King was working the Saturday night game Feb. 16 when a teen-ager approached the door, she said. The cashier told the boy it would cost $3 to get in to the game, King said. The boy grabbed the cash box and fled, according to police. 

When McCarthy first saw the gray metal box, it looked like cardboard, she said. Then she moved closer. 

“I saw it was more like a cash box, and I could hear some change, some coins, in there, and opened it up,” she said. “I was like, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of money in here; I better call somebody.”’ 

Police have not arrested anyone for the theft. 

Longfellow Middle School principal William Dwyer submitted a resignation letter Wednesday, obtained by the Planet, suggesting that he is disheartened by the district’s financial woes. 

“My future plans and relocation are a ‘work in progress,’ ” wrote Dwyer, whose resignation will be effective at the end of the year. “One goal is a warmer climate, and a position not associated to the current Enron type (belly up) situation.” 

Dwyer, reached by the Planet Tuesday evening declined to, in detail, elaborate on his resignation letter.  

He did, however, bring up concerns about the district’s multi-million dollar deficit. 

“I’m sad the district is in the state that it’s in,” said Dwyer, noting that he had to issue 15 layoff notices this week. “I hired a lot of people to do the program.” 

The district, plagued by financial mismanagement in the past and state funding cuts, needs to cut about $6 million to balance next year’s budget. 

The Board of Education voted last week to cut about $3.8 million. A wave of layoffs is expected to make up the difference.  

Today’s Highlight in History: 

Twenty years ago, on March 5, 1982, comedian John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose in a rented bungalow in Hollywood; he was 33. 

On this date: 

In 1770, the Boston Massacre took place as British soldiers who’d been taunted by a crowd of colonists opened fire, killing five people. 

In 1849, Zachary Taylor took the oath of office at his presidential inauguration. 

In 1868, the Senate was organized into a Court of Impeachment to decide charges against President Andrew Johnson. 

In 1933, in German parliamentary elections, the Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote, enabling it to join with the Nationalists to gain a slender majority in the Reichstag. 

In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. 

In 1953, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died at age 73 after 29 years in power. 

In 1963, country music performers Patsy Cline, “Cowboy” Copas and “Hawkshaw” Hawkins died in a plane crash near Camden, Tenn. 

In 1970, a nuclear non-proliferation treaty went into effect after 43 nations ratified it. 

In 1977, President Carter took questions from 42 telephone callers in 26 states on a network radio call-in program moderated by Walter Cronkite. 

In 1986, in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad issued a statement saying it had “executed” French hostage Michel Seurat, who had been abducted almost a year earlier. 

Ten years ago:  

Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The trial of four Los Angeles police officers charged with beating motorist Rodney King opened in Simi Valley, Calif. 

Five years ago:  

The Ohio River rose to its highest level in a generation, flooding the Louisville, Ky., area. Tommy Lasorda, Nellie Fox and Willie Wells Sr. were elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame. North and South Korea met for the first time in 25 years to talk peace. 

One year ago:  

Vice President Dick Cheney underwent an angioplasty for a partially blocked artery after going to a hospital with chest pains. Two students at Santana High School in Santee, Calif., were shot to death, and 13 other people were wounded. A student, Charles “Andy” Williams, was charged in the shootings. A stampede broke out during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Saudi Arabia, killing 35 Muslims. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Actor James Noble is 80. Actor James B. Sikking is 68. Actor Dean Stockwell is 66. Actor Fred Williamson is 64. Actor Michael Warren is 56. Actor Eddie Hodges is 55. Singer Eddy Grant is 54. Violinist Eugene Fodor is 52. Rock musician Alan Clark (Dire Straits) is 50. Actress-comedian Marsha Warfield is 48. Magician Penn Jillette is 47. Rock singer Craig Reid is 40. Rock singer Charlie Reid is 40. Rock musician John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 32. Singer Rome is 32. Actor Kevin Connolly is 28. Actress Jolene Blalock (“Enterprise”) is 27. Model Niki Taylor is 27. Actor Jake Lloyd is 13. 

BURLINGAME — The father of a 13-year-old boy believed to have been killed by his mother described his son as gentle, giving and intelligent. 

“He was a bright, mature kid,” Frank Burns told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis of his son Stephen Burns. “He was the kind of kid that if he had a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich and you didn’t have anything, he’d give you half. Then if someone else wanted some, he’d give half of that.” 

Stephen Burns was visiting his father in Burlingame last month when his mother, Donna Anderson, 48, allegedly stabbed him to death in the back of Frank Burns’ home. Anderson and Frank Burns are divorced. 

Stephen Burns was in seventh grade at Blake School and loved basketball. His hero was Kobe Bryant, a guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. Stephen Burns also played French horn and baseball. 

Police said that on Feb. 24, Frank Burns heard a scream and ran to the back of the house, where he reportedly found Anderson stabbing their son. Frank Burns, 53, was stabbed in the leg with a 7-inch kitchen knife as he tried to restrain Anderson, police said.  

Editor: 

Last week, the plight of security workers at Oakland airport was a front-page article in the Daily Planet. Your report focused on the idea that "This is part of an anti-immigrant wave". But you missed the real story:  

Why were these jobs federalized, putting all those screeners out of work? 

Making that happen was apparently a priority for Barbara Lee, our representative in Congress. In an October 16th Planet article about her visit to the Oakland airport, she was quoted as being in favor of federalization, and as having been working hard in support of that aspect of the airport security bill. Her office later sent out a constituent letter listing it as a “legislative priority.” 

Her constituents and the Daily Planet should insist on an explanation. Why did she think this was a good idea, despite opposition to it in her district and the damage it caused? Why was she willing to trade these people's jobs away? 

Bob Jacobsen 

Berkeley

Today’s Highlight in History: 

One hundred and twenty-five years ago, on March 2, 1877, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote. 

On this date: 

In 1793, the first president of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, was born near Lexington, Va. 

In 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico. 

In 1899, President McKinley signed a measure creating the rank of Admiral of the Navy for Adm. George Dewey. 

In 1899, Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state was established. 

In 1917, Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship. 

In 1923, Time magazine made its debut. 

In 1939, Roman Catholic Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected pope; he took the name Pius XII. 

In 1949, an American B-50 Superfortress, the Lucky Lady Two, landed at Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop, round-the-world flight. 

In 1955, the William Inge play “Bus Stop” opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York. 

In 1977, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a strict code of ethics. 

Ten years ago:  

A jury was seated in Simi Valley, Calif., in the assault trial of four Los Angeles police officers charged with beating motorist Rodney King. The U.N. General Assembly welcomed eight former Soviet republics and San Marino as its newest members. Actress Sandy Dennis died in Westport, Conn., at age 54. 

Five years ago:  

It was revealed that Vice President Gore had raised millions of dollars for the 1996 campaign through direct telephone solicitations, and that some of the calls were made on special phones installed in government buildings for that purpose. 

One year ago:  

The United Nations tried in vain to persuade Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to reverse its decision to destroy a pair of giant, ancient statues of Buddha and other Buddhist relics that the regime considered idolatrous. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Actress Jennifer Jones is 83. Bluegrass singer-musician Doc Watson is 79. Actor John Cullum is 72. Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev is 71. Author Tom Wolfe is 71. Actress Barbara Luna is 63. Actor Jon Finch is 61. Author John Irving is 60. Singer Lou Reed is 60. Actress Cassie Yates is 51. Actress Laraine Newman is 50. Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., is 49. Singer Jay Osmond is 47. Pop musician John Cowsill (The Cowsills) is 46. Tennis player Kevin Curren is 44. Rock singer Jon Bon Jovi is 40. Actress Heather McComb is 25. Actor Robert Iler (“The Sopranos”) is 17.